Ghana CHILD PROTECTION BUDGET ANALYSIS GHANA 2019/2020 Final December 2020 Child Protection Budget Analysis – 2020 2 Table of Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Key Messages .............................................................................................................................................. 5 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Sector overview .............................................................................................................................. 8 1.1.1 Overall policy framework, co-ordination and monitoring of child protection .............................. 9 1.1.2 Child and family welfare services .......................................................................................... 10 1.1.3 Access to justice related services for children ....................................................................... 12 1.1.4 Birth registration services ...................................................................................................... 14 1.1.5 Other MDAs and NGOs/CSOs involved in child protection .................................................... 15 1.2 Legal and policy framework for child protection ............................................................................ 15 1.3 Sector performance ...................................................................................................................... 18 1.3.1 SDG 3.7 – Universal access to sexual and reproductive care and family planning ................ 20 1.3.1 SDG 5.3 – Eliminate child, early and forced marriages .......................................................... 20 1.3.2 SDG 8.7 and 16.2 – End modern slavery, trafficking, and child labour .................................. 20 1.3.3 SDG 16.2 – Protect children from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence ...................... 21 1.3.4 SDG 16.9 – Provide universal legal identity ........................................................................... 22 2 Child Protection Spending Trends ....................................................................................................... 24 2.1 Size of public spending on child protection by MoGCSP and MoLGRD ........................................ 26 2.2 Changes in public spending on child protection by MoGCSP and MoLGRD ................................. 27 2.3 The priority of child protection ....................................................................................................... 27 2.4 Public spending against commitments .......................................................................................... 29 2.5 Public spending on child protection compared to other countries.................................................. 30 3 Composition of Child Protection Spending ........................................................................................... 32 3.1 Categories of child protection services ......................................................................................... 33 3.2 Child protection budgets by programme ....................................................................................... 34 3.3 Child protection budgets by economic classification ..................................................................... 36 3.3.1 Analysis of economic classification based on budget documents .......................................... 36 3.3.2 Analysis of economic classification based on GIFMIS data ................................................... 41 4 Child Protection Budget Credibility and Execution ............................................................................... 42 4.1. Budget credibility .......................................................................................................................... 42 4.2. Budget execution .......................................................................................................................... 44 5 Equity of Child Protection Spending .................................................................................................... 48 5.1. Regional disparities in spending ................................................................................................... 48 5.1.1. District assemblies’ budgets for child protection .................................................................... 49 5.1.2. Region budgets for child protection ....................................................................................... 51 5.1.3. Regional budgets for Births and Deaths Data Management .................................................. 53 5.1.4. Regional budgets for Child Rights Promotion, Protection and Development .......................... 54 Final December 2020 Child Protection Budget Analysis – 2020 3 5.1.5. Institutional bias in the regional allocation of child protection budgets ................................... 55 5.2. Spending disparities by results ..................................................................................................... 56 6. Financing the Child Protection Sector .................................................................................................. 58 6.1. Sources of funding for child protection .......................................................................................... 58 6.2. Fiscal space for child protection ................................................................................................... 59 6.2.1. Macroeconomic conditions .................................................................................................... 60 6.2.2. Reprioritization of child protection .......................................................................................... 60 6.2.3. Child protection sector-specific resources ............................................................................. 61 6.2.4. Child protection sector-specific grants and foreign aid ........................................................... 61 6.2.5. Potential efficiency gains ....................................................................................................... 61 7. Further Sectoral Priority ....................................................................................................................... 62 7.1. Tracking Child Protection Budgets ................................................................................................ 62 7.2. Violence against children and strengthening decentralized social service workforce .................... 63 7.3. DOVVSU and medico-legal services related to sexual and gender-based violence ...................... 64 7.4. Adolescent Pregnancies ............................................................................................................... 65 7.5. Automated Birth Registration ........................................................................................................ 66 Final December 2020 Child Protection Budget Analysis – 2020 4 Preface In this budget analysis child protection refers to the prevention and response to violence, exploitation and abuse of children, including emotional, physical and sexual violence (both online and offline), trafficking of children, child labour, child marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting and neglect of children. Given the nature and range of child protection issues, a large number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are responsible for the different services. Consequently, there is no single “budget” for child protection, but rather allocations are subsumed in various programmes, sub-programmes and activities across different MDAs, and very often expenditures on child protection are not clearly distinguishable from broader programme spending. To complicate things further, with decentralisation a Department of Social Welfare and Community Development was created under each of the 260 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs). The staff in these departments are the core social welfare services workforce. MMDAs are responsible for budgeting for these staff and the goods and services they require to perform their duties. While decentralisation is intended to bring services (and the governance of services) closer to communities, at this early stage it appears to have weakened the linkages between policy agencies and service providers. Also, it has diluted the funding of child protection, since MMDAs do not have the revenue-base to adequately fund child protection services and structures. For the purposes of this budget analysis, the child protection sector is divided into four areas, namely i. overall coordination and policy framework for child protection, ii. child and family welfare services, iii. justice for children and iv. birth registration. Some of these areas have clear budget lines or sub-programmes, while for others the budgets are part of broader programmes and not easily identified. For this analysis, the main focus is on the budgets and expenditures of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The latter Ministry includes the budgets for local government services and the Births and Deaths Registry. Budget and expenditure information comes from the relevant ministries’ Programme