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In the 2006 Care Reform Initiative (CRI), Ghana’s Department of Social Welfare (DSW) called for the deinstitutionalization of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and sought to move vulnerable children towards a range of integrated family and community-based care services. The initiative is currently on its third five-year road map for 2017 to 2021 with specific targets and yet still children are in orphanages. Over a decade after the official launch of the initiative a myriad of challenges persist, especially the uncertainty over whether families are prepared to welcome OVC into their homes…
Abstract
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) stipulates children are entitled to “a family environment…of happiness, love and understanding”. Recent work on deinstitutionalization of children from residential care has found important child wellbeing differences, particularly around hope. Using data from Ghana—a country that has initiated reintegration of children from residential care facilities, therefore providing a natural opportunity for comparative research—we used hope, whether the child has been reunified with family/…
In 2017, MEASURE Evaluation worked with a country core team (CCT) in Ghana, led by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) of the MOGCSP, to engage government partners and other stakeholders to design, plan, and conduct a participatory self-assessment of the national alternative care system that will support the government and its partners in continuing to advance alternative care.
The assessment framework, finalized with input from USAID headquarters, USAID field offices, and 23 stakeholder interviews in Ghana, covered nine areas of alternative care: (1) prevention of unnecessary…
The Better Care Network (BCN) and UNICEF, supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/ US Agency for International Development (USAID), commissioned Maestral International LLC to document significant child-care reform work being carried out at country level in three African countries, to promote information exchange and learning within the region, and reinforce and encourage care reform in other countries. These reforms involve legislation, policies and programmes, including service delivery, advocacy and networking. The three countries reviewed for the country…
In 2013 The Better Care Network and Save the Children UK began an inter-agency initiative to review and share existing knowledge on international volunteerism as related to the alternative care of children in developing countries. This initiative brings together key actors from across the child protection, education, corporate, faith-based and tourism sectors to share their respective experiences and identify global communication and engagement strategies to address the issue.
The purpose of this study was not to conduct formal academic research on the topic of volunteering in…
This overview is intended to contribute to discussions on international volunteering in residential care centres as an anecdotal research piece on the situation in Ghana. Ghana was chosen as a focus country due to recommendations from a range of informants who raised concerns about extent of the practice in residential care centres in Ghana. Availability of research also contributed to the choice of Ghana as a country focus.
This overview was informed by online resources, academic and institutional literature, and interviews with informants.
Better Care Network, Better Care Network…