Mrs Ruth Addison, a Child development consultant, says early childhood care and development issues cut across sectors.
She said it was, therefore, important that such issues were not left to only one Ministry.
“Early childhood care and development issues is not a one Ministry business so we should work to ensure that every Ministry, Department and Agency implements some aspect of Ghana’s early childhood care and development policy,” Mrs Addison said.
The former Director of the Department of Children said this when she addressed participants of a workshop to review and discuss Ghana’s Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy.
The participants were drawn from the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as well as representatives of selected non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, religious bodies, some parents of children with disabilities and the academia.
Mrs Addison tasked the participants to ensure that issues that affected children with special needs and their families were addressed in the new policy.
“Make a conscious effort to ensure that the needs of children, especially children with special needs are rolled into government policies…All sectors must create desks that address issues of children with special needs just like it has been done with the gender issues and do not forget about their caregivers,” Mrs Addison reiterated.
Mr Terrence Beney, the Consultant for the project, said the old policy did not address issues affecting children with disabilities and their caregivers.
He, therefore, called for packages that addressed the needs of children with special needs and their caregivers.
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) involves the timely provision of a range of services that promotes the survival, growth, development and protection of young children between the ages of zero and eight.
Mrs Florence Ayisi Quartey, Acting Director at the Department of Children, said the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, was revising the ECCD policy in partnership with UNICEF.
She said they were adopting a highly participatory approach to ensure the involvement of relevant stakeholders and to develop a comprehensive policy that addressed Ghana’s ECCD needs.
She said initial stakeholder consultations were undertaken to solicit inputs for the policy review and that series of consultations were being carried out as part of the review process to assist in the drafting of a costed implementation plan as well as a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework.
Participants at the workshop agreed to work towards a policy that was inclusive and to ensure that all sectors adopted and implemented components of the ECCD policy. -GNA
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