This document discusses the vulnerabilities of children in Ghana and outlines critical areas for intervention. It identifies two types of needs that must be met to reduce child vulnerability: immediate needs like healthcare, nutrition, and protection; and strategic needs like education, income security, and participation. The document emphasizes being intentional about investing in opportunities that promote child participation and transform structural causes of vulnerability. It also stresses increasing local capacity building targeted at homes, schools, churches, and government to strengthen a systematic approach to children's rights and protection.

1. Global Children Action Network
Church Partners Training Workshop
Vulnerabilities of Children in the
Ghanaian Context
Presented by - Cecilia Ama Anderson
Executive Co-ordinator
Global Children Action Network

2. Global Children Action Network
Understanding child(ren’s) needs:
• Children have diverse needs that determine their
growth, survival, welfare and fulfilled development,
• The quality of these needs is based on family,
household income levels, church, school and
community environment, and government’s socioeconomic policies.

3. Global Children Action Network
•There are 2 types of needs that must
be met to reduce child vulnerability:
-Immediate needs
-Strategic needs

4. Global Children Action Network
1) Meeting the immediate needs of the child:
This covers a different sector interventions and so is
described as multi-sectoral approach towards meeting
the needs of children. It covers increasing access to:
- Providing quality healthcare service, proper nutritional
care, immunization, safe water and sanitation;
- Government, parents and community showing care
and being responsible towards children and protecting
children’s rights.
• It also includes all efforts towards reducing practices
that cause harm to children and ensuring the social,
cultural, religious and spiritual well-being of the child.

5. Global Children Action Network
2) Strategic needs of the child:
• These are essential needs that have particular
impact on the protection, future security and
safety of children as they grow towards
adulthood.
• They determine the quality of the child’s future
and his or her role as a community human
resource capital and a contributor sustaining gains
in community/district development.

6. Global Children Action Network
Strategic needs of the child includes:
Improving domestic economy or household income to
ensure:
- Access to quality education,
- Improved clinical and public healthcare services
- Household food security
- Managing disabilities in children efficiently/effectively
- Enhancing/providing legal systems and structures to deal
with situations and issues that affect the well-being and
welfare of the child or his/her family.
- Ensuring church policies benefit children and families and
promotes harmony, safety and protection for children.

7. Global Children Action Network
Meeting strategic needs cont’d:
- Providing a national identity through birth
registration;
- Proper safe shelter, home/church and community
environment
- Increasing children’s participation in decisions at
home, church and the community to help develop
life skills to shape their destiny or learn how to
make better choices and take decisions.
The child has the right to these to these immediate
needs from gestation through birth to when he or
she transit through their formative years till they
reach adulthood at age 18.

8. Global Children Action Network
Things to consider:
• These needs are quite important and demands intentionality
towards deciding how far we effectively and efficiently want to go
as a parents, family, church/religious bodies and communities.
• It includes planning, implementation and ensuring annual
measurable results towards achieving impact.
• Areas to consider when addressing children’s needs are social,
cultural, spiritual and economic needs of children found in the
church, home and community.
N.B: Where these needs are neglected, children fall prey to adult or
peer exploitation, manipulation and abuse. Depriving children of
their needs therefore makes them vulnerable and open them up
to all forms of harm and danger.

9. Global Children Action Network
1. Critical areas to consider for intervention
• Addressing need for reduction or transforming factors
that contributes to negative practices and actions that
expose children to harm, threatens their safety and
security and open them up to all types and forms of
abuse, etc.
• Being Intentional about investing in creating
opportunities and providing platforms
1. That increase child participation and promotes a
friendly, adult and child learning environment t
2. Ensuring sustainable impact in transforming structural
causes to child vulnerability

10. Global Children Action Network
2. Critical areas to consider for intervention
• Increase investment in local capacity building that is
influenced more by strengthening a systematic approach to
promoting children’s rights, protection, safety and security.
• This must target:
- Homes where families - children and their parents, guardians
and other caregivers inter-act.
- Children in schools and teacher where they schools attended
and also target children not in school
- Church groups and church leaders/clergy.
- Other volunteers we work with;
- Gov’t MDAs and CBOs/FBOs and other local CSOs

11. Global Children Action Network
3. Critical areas to consider for intervention
• Putting place a vibrant and functioning referral
systems and an effective monitoring practice that
ensures annual assessment of changes in
upholding children’s rights and general well-being
with evidence.
• Having an effective reporting systems for
documentation and sharing learning in best
practices.