Girls Advocacy Program Plan Ghana

Despite the socio-economic progress achieved during the past 10 years, girls and young women in Ghana still suffer high levels of gender-based violence. The predominant forms of violence are child early and forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking and sexual violence and abuse. According to the most recent survey, the national rate of girls under 18 years being married off has increased from 25.9% in 2006 to 27.0% in 2011. Data from the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service (2011) show that sexual violence is on the increase in Ghana. Having a decent job and enjoying economic independence are important conditions for young women to prevent (further) violence in their relationships. However, the majority of economically active women in Ghana is working in the informal sector. Their jobs are labelled as ‘vulnerable employment’, which means inadequate wages, limited access to basic safety services and to social protection schemes. Girls and women’s disadvantaged position on the labour market is aggravated by the lack of opportunities to secondary, technical and vocational education. The government of Ghana has adopted laws and policies to tackle issues of gender based violence and economic exclusion. However, it is the implementation of these policies that are not actualized on the ground or at the beneficiary level. Implementation is plagued by limited resources (human, material and technical i.e. inadequate equipment), bureaucracy (delays) and peoples’ appreciation of the policy. Stakeholders are not committed in playing their roles.