Lack of coordination and collaboration among state institutions have been identified as the major challenges in the fight against teenage pregnancies and child marriages in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North Eastern Region.
At a day’s NORSAAC inception meeting in Walewale to deliberate on the NORSAAC Promoting Adolescent Sexual Safe Space(PASS) Project, representatives of CHRAJ, GHS, NCCE, NYA, assembly members and community members came to the conclusion that, until all state actors collaborate and coordinate their activities, perpetrators would always go unpunished.
They want the G.E.S, GHS, Social welfare, law enforcement agencies and chiefs to team up to deal with teenage pregnancies and child marriages. They also expressed worry about the neglect and depriving of effective departments with the necessary resources to work, while well- equipped agencies and departments renege on their responsibilities.
The successful implementation of the PASS they observed project would largely depend on the inclusion of boy adolescents. According to them, the ‘bad boys’ cause a lot of harm to the young girls’ future and their exclusion in the PASS project would not yield the needed results.
Representatives of the five beneficiary communities pledged their unflinching support and commitment to end the worrying social menace in the area.
The Duu-rana (chief of Walewale), Mahami Abudu assured NORSAAC and other stakeholders of his palace’s support in ending child and teenage pregnancy in the West Mamprusi municipality.
NORSAAC’s Head of Programs and Policy, Hajia Hafsah Sey Sumani pleaded with the institutions present to liaise with chiefs to help find a lasting solution to the problem.
She cited similar social problem in the Karaga district and how stakeholders collaborated effectively with the chiefs to confront it. NORSAAC and its partners she said, expect reduction of the teenage pregnancies and child marriages to the barest minimum from June to December 2019.
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