Akosombo: Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has called for urgent, coordinated, and child-centred national action to address persistent bottlenecks threatening Ghana's ability to achieve key child-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. She made the call at the closing session of a Strategic Planning Retreat organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) at Akosombo.
According to Ghana Web, the two-day retreat was held under the theme, 'Planning Together for a Better Future for Children and Adolescents in Ghana.' Addressing participants, the Vice President commended the NDPC for its leadership and expressed the government's appreciation to UNICEF for its continued support to children in Ghana. She emphasized that children's health, education, and protection are fundamental rights and the cornerstone of sustainable and inclusive development. She stressed that planning for children must be placed at the centre of Ghana's development strategy.
Quoting former US President John F Kennedy, she noted that 'children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future,' a view she said aligns with President John Dramani Mahama's commitment to creating opportunities for every Ghanaian child through deliberate policies and effective leadership. Professor Opoku-Agyemang acknowledged Ghana's notable gains in child welfare, including a 95-97% immunisation coverage for key vaccines, full settlement of US$24.5 million in immunisation co-financing in 2025, high school enrolment and completion rates, and declines in child marriage and informal unions.
However, she cautioned that Ghana is not on track to meet many child-related SDG targets by 2030. She revealed that over 60,000 children are living and working on the streets in major urban centres, while nearly 30% of children lack birth registration, denying them legal identity and access to essential services. Alarmingly, she said three out of every four children in Ghana are multidimensionally poor, amounting to about 10 million children facing overlapping deprivations in health, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, housing, and protection.
The Vice President highlighted several ongoing government initiatives aimed at improving child wellbeing, including the Care Reform Roadmap to shift from institutional care to family-based alternatives, the Digital Social Welfare Information Management System to improve child protection case management, and the Integrated Social Services linking child protection, health, education, and justice services. Other initiatives include Adolescent Safe Spaces in northern Ghana to empower young people with life skills and education, the Ghana Against Child Abuse campaign, and the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy.
In her remarks, NDPC Director-General, Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, said the retreat reaffirmed that child and adolescent wellbeing is a constitutional and developmental imperative. She identified priority areas including maternal and neonatal mortality, nutrition, foundational learning, social protection, and the urgent need to reduce child marriage, early unions, and adolescent pregnancy. 'Today, we have children giving birth to children,' she lamented, calling for coordinated legal, educational, health, and community-based interventions.
Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Professor Samuel Kaba, shared emotional accounts highlighting the human cost of health system gaps, reaffirming his commitment to people-centred healthcare. Meanwhile, UN Resident Coordinator Zia Choudhury praised Ghana's leadership and stressed the importance of translating commitments into concrete budgets and sustained investments. 'When we work together across sectors, results for children are smarter, faster, and more sustainable,' she said, reaffirming the UN's support for Ghana's child-centred development agenda.