Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) The Collection and Analysis Stories from Regions, Municipalities, Metropolitans, Districts, Communities in Ghana (The Synthesis Report which is based on the Phase I and II MSC Assessment Reports is available on the website of UNICEF Ghana) Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) The Collection and Analysis Stories from Regions, Municipalities, Metropolitans, Districts, Communities in Ghana May 2018 (The Synthesis Report which is based on the Phase I and II MSC Assessment Reports is available on the website of UNICEF Ghana) Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) @2018 May 2018 All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced, as a whole or in part, provided that acknowledgement of the sources in made. Notification of such would be appreciated. Published by: UNICEF Ghana Pictures by: UNICEF Ghana For further information, contact: UNICEF Ghana P.O. Box AN 5051, Accra-North, Ghana. Telephone: +233302772524; www.unicef.org/ghana UNICEF Ghana P.O. Box AN 5051, Accra-North, Ghana. Telephone: +233302772524; www.unicef.org/ghana This document was put together by Associates for Change on behalf of UNICEF Ghana with financial support from the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of research team. The contents don’t necessarily reflect the views and positions of UNICEF Ghana and Global Affairs Canada. About Associates for Change (AfC): AfC is a research and consulting firm based in Ghana focused on social development, child protection, education, health, gender equality, agriculture, project management and evaluation in Africa. AfC’s mission is to generate policy relevant research and high-quality consulting services in the socio- economic governance and development sectors in order to influence social change, equity and policy reform in Africa. Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) iii Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations ix Executive Summary xi 1.0 MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE PROCESS ACROSS UNICEF’S CHILD PROTECTION PROGRAMMES (PHASE II) 1 1.1 UNICEF Child Protection Implementation in Ghana 3 1.2 Most Significant Change (MSC) Approach 4 2.0 THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE (MSC) ASSESSMENT APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY 7 2.1 Key Assessment Objectives 7 2.2 Sampling Framework and Sample Size 7 2.3 Training and Capacity Building 8 2.4 Selection of MSC Stories through the District Child Protection Committee 9 2.5 Team Composition and training 10 2.6 Limitation and Challenges in the Field 10 3.0 IMPLEMENTATION OF TRAINING ON THE MSC STORY COLLECTION AND SELECTION 11 Table 2: Number of MSC Training Participants by Districts 11 4.0 LIGHT TOUCH QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MSC STORIES 13 4.1 Light Touch Analysis of MSC Stories Collected 13 4.2 Demographic Analysis 14 4.3 Light Touch Analysis of Final Selected MSC Stories 19 5.0 SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND PROGRAMME CONTEXT OF THE CHILD PROTECTION STORIES OF CHANGE 23 5.1 Key Child Protection Issues Based on Stakeholder Interviews at District and Community Levels 23 5.2 Community Interventions to Address Child Protection 27 5.3 UNICEF and Other Partner Programme Interventions on Child Protection across the Districts 27 5.3.1 UNICEF GOG Partners 28 5.3.2 UNICEF NGO Partners 29 5.3.3 Other (Non-UNICEF) Partners 29 Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) iv 6.0 QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY FINDINGS BASED ON THE CHILD PROTECTION DOMAINS 31 6.1 Child Migration and Trafficking 31 6.2 Child Labour and Child Work 47 6.3 Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights 61 6.4 Child Marriage 71 6.5 Children in Conflict with the Law and Child Delinquency 73 6.6 Child Abuse and Neglect 81 6.7 Automated Birth Registration 89 6.8 Right to Education 90 6.9 Empowerment, Livelihood and Voice 100 6.10 Alternative Care for Children 104 6.10 Multiple Domain Category of Child Protection Issues 109 7.0 ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION OF SELECTED MSC STORIES 117 8.0 KEY FINDINGS AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM PHASE 2 OF THE MSC ASSESSMENT 121 8.1 Lessons Learned 121 8.2 MSC II Recommendations across key Domains 123 REFERENCES 127 ANNEXES 128 Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) v List of Tables and Figures Table 1: MSC Assessment Sampling Framework 8 Table 2: Number of MSC Training Participants by Districts 11 Table 3: Summary of MSC Stories Collected by Child Protection Domains 17 Table 4: Selected MSC Stories in Southern Ghana 19 Table 5: Regional and District Distribution of Selected MSC Stories 19 Table 6: Distribution of Selected MSC Stories Based on Child Protection Domains 20 Table 7: Child Protection Domains of Selected MSC Stories Grouped by Districts 21 Table 8: Multiple Domain MSC Stories 22 Table 9: UNICEF Partners and other organisations Implementing Child Interventions in Assessment Communities Visited for MSC Story-collection by District 28 Table 10: Interventions on child labour across the six MSC target districts 56 Table 11: Interventions on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights based on MSC Stories 67 Table 12: Intervention grid based on Stories on Children in Conflict with the Law and Child Delinquency 79 Table 13: Intervention grid based on Alternative care stories 107 Table 14: Depth of Change Due to Interventions from Selected MSC Stories 117 Table 15: Frequency of Mention of Intervening Organizations in Stories that have Depth of Change Reaching the Rest of the Community (n=103) by District 118 Table 16: Number of Stories Reflecting Types of Changes Due to Child 119 Table 17: Selected MSC Stories that Include Social and Cultural Change 120 Figure 1: Regional Distribution of MSC Stories Collected 13 Figure 2: Distribution of MSC Stories Collected by Districts 14 Figure 3: Gender Distribution of Participants 14 Figure 4: Occupational Distribution of Participants 15 Figure 5: Age Distribution of Participants 16 Figure 6: Sources of MSC Stories 16 Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) vii Acknowledgements UNICEF is grateful to Associates for Change and its core team who collected the Most Significant Change Stories related to child protection in Ghana during the Phase I and Phase II. This team included: Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford, Marian Tadefa-Kubabon,Imranah Adams Mahamah, Enock Dery Pufaa, Mohammed Awal Iddrisu and Mona Darko. A full listing of the field researchers and other consultants is included in Annex 6 of this synthesis report. The MSC Child Protection Phase 1 and Phase 2 full analytical reports are available on UNICEF Ghana website (www.unicef.org/ghana) Ongoing support was provided to Associates for Change by Mr. Muhammad Rafiq Khan, Ms. Emelia Allan, and Veronica Avati along with the entire UNICEF Child Protection team for phase 1 and 2 MSC assessments on child protection in Ghana. UNICEF is also grateful to Mr. Paul Avorkah, the Director of the Department of Community Development (DCD) for providing the direction and support required to ensure the success of this project. We want to also acknowledge the efforts of Ms. Rose Assan (Greater Accra Regional Director DCD) and Mr. Emmanuel Amoaba (Programme Officer, DCD National Secretariat) who helped coordinate/support the field work, story collection and selection process during the two phases of the study in Northern and Southern Ghana. The success of the MSC Phase I and II assessments is also attributed to the assistance provided by various government agencies at the district and regional levels including: The Department of Community Development regional and district offices, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE); the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); Ghana Health Service (GHS); the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR); and the Ghana Education Service (GES). We acknowledge the contributions of several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) whose hard work is very evident across the communities visited, and we especially acknowledge the staff who participated in the training and joined our research teams to assist with story collection, and community entry. These institutions include: AfriKids, NORSAAC, Youth Harvest Foundation, Brave Aurora, the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC), International Needs Ghana, Challenging Heights, Chance for Children, Kinders’ Paradise, Seek to Save Foundation, International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Justice Mission and Plan Ghana. We also acknowledge, all the children, adults and community opinion leaders who volunteered to share their stories of change in order for us to learn about what works to protect and make positive change in the lives of Ghana’s children. Finally, we would like to thank the Government of Canada for providing the financial support to through Global Affairs Canada to first implement the community led initiatives at the local level to address child protection, and sexual and gender based violence related issues and then to collect the most significant stories. Significant Change Stories on Child Protection in Ghana: Phase II (Southern Ghana) ix List of Abbreviations AfC Associates for Change BDR Birth and Death Registry CAMFED Campaign for Female Education CCPC Community Child Protection Committees CDD Community Development Department CFC Chance for Children CHRAJ Commission on Human