Ghana needs a system to track child protection funding to where risks are highest – ARK Foundation

Dr Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, Founder of the Ark Foundation, has stressed the necessity of a systematic approach to funding child protection in Ghana. In an interview on Joy FM Super Morning Show, she expressed concern over the lack of reliable data that prevents authorities from identifying the required funding and prioritizing resources effectively.

"Without numbers and data, it's hard to say five percent or ten percent," she noted. Dwamena-Aboagye emphasized the need for a child protection financing framework that tracks resources from the national level through government structures to district assemblies, ensuring funding aligns with children's specific needs. She proposed monitoring funding from the Ministry of Finance, through various government bodies, to the District Assemblies Common Fund, enabling authorities to pinpoint where assistance is most needed.

Dwamena-Aboagye also advocated for a bottom-up approach, asserting that decisions on child protection should not solely be dictated by national level decisions. Her remarks were made against the backdrop of a recent JoyNews–SOS Children’s Villages Ghana documentary, Hands That Hurt, Hands That Heal, which documented several cases of child abuse, exploitation, and neglect.

These cases, including those of 15-year-old Joel, 14-year-old Benedicta, and several others, underscored the vulnerabilities in Ghana's child protection system and the detrimental effects of abuse on children's education, well-being, and futures. Dwamena-Aboagye urged for stronger investment, improved coordination, and enhanced accountability in Ghana's child protection mechanisms, driven by the documentary's revelations.