The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency (H.E) Christopher Thornley, has paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Mrs. Nana Oye Lithur, to discuss issues of social protection in the country, with particular focus on children.
Speaking at the meeting, H.E Thornley said Canada was committed to her bilateral relationship with Ghana hence the need for both countries to engage in more mutually beneficial partnerships in the future.
He added that Canada had a range of programmes in child protection and would continue to show commitment in that area with the government of Ghana and its developing partners.
Mr. Thornley said the Canadian government was concerned about child protection and would partner with the government of Ghana to improve the status of children in the country.
For her part, Hon. Nana Lithur said her Ministry had benefited immensely from the partnership with the Canadian government and expressed the hope that the relationship would continue.
She disclosed that her Ministry, with support from the Canadian government, had acquired Information Technology (IT) equipment and would embark on training the Ministry’s staff in IT and research tools to help the Ministry in its research and data collection.
The Minister added that the government of Canada had also supported the ministry to train its officers in gender budget analysis which helped them in negotiating a budget increment from GH₵ 38 million to GH₵ 91 million to help achieve her targets.
According to Mrs. Lithur, the support from the Canadian government had helped them to steer up communication within the ministry.
She noted that government was still focused on addressing the social needs of the people of Ghana, adding that cabinet had approved the co-ordination of social protection programmes at all levels of governance from national to districts levels.
Touching on gender protection, the Minister disclosed that a national expert group was discussing the second draft for the Affirmative Action Bill which would help protect the human rights of Ghanaians.
“We are very grateful that you are also looking at providing support to the government of Ghana as far as child protection is concern,” Mrs Lithur stated.
Source: ISD (Benjamin Tandoh)
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