body-container-line-1

Girl Child Education Is Key In Reducing Maternal Mortality Rate In Ghana–UN

By Eric Joe Ayivi
General News Girl Child Education Is Key In Reducing Maternal Mortality Rate In Ghana–UN
OCT 25, 2014 LISTEN

Though Ghana has make giant stride in reducing maternal mortality, the country won't be able to achieve the MDG 5 target of reducing maternal mortality rate by three quarters by 2015 as a result of government inability to implement policy framework on maternal mortality.

With 50 percent reduction in maternal mortality, statistics indicates that every year 3,800 Ghanaian mothers die during child pregnancy and delivery children.

These deaths, the UN resident Coordinator, Mr. Girmay Haile, described as unacceptable and everything must be done possible to curtail the growing situation.

According to him, no woman should die when giving birth. He said the health sector needs an improvement and more education to reduce the high rate.

Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi, a UN representative in Ghana was of the view that, one most important weapon in reducing maternal mortality rate is to promote girl child education to help them make the right decisions on child birth

He averred that, education of women is very critical to the development of the country because it goes a long way in reducing child mortality, early marriage, fighting poverty and improving health.

He made this known at the launch of UN advocacy campaign on girl's education and maternal health under the theme “Youth engagement for effective nation building”.

Mr. Ahonsi indicated that most of deaths resulting from child birth are preventable if women are informed on seeking the right medical advice.

He noted that though girl's enrollments in schools have increased, a lot of factors are making it difficult for them to stay in school. Some this reasons he stated are barriers associated with menstrual hygiene management, late enrolment, violence against adolescent girls among others.

He said giving birth is a choice and no women should die when giving another life.

He, therefore, urged men to support their wife's before, during and after child birth for a happy home.

Background Info:

UN Joint Public Advocacy

MATERNAL HEALTH & GIRLS EDUCATION

Introduction

The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines advocacy as “the act or process of supporting a cause”. It is a “the deliberate process, based on demonstrated evidence, to directly and indirectly influence decision makers, stakeholders and relevant audiences to support and implement actions that contribute to the fulfilment of” the cause.
Why now?

Based on the principle stated above and the fact that 2015 is the end date for every country to account for their stewardship in achieving the MDGs, the UN in Ghana deem it necessary to intensify advocacy on some specific issues for everyone's attention and action. The UNCT identified two critical areas of concern. These are the MDG Accelerated Framework (MAF) on maternal health and Girls Education with a focus on the transition period from primary to secondary level.
Objective
The general objective of the advocacy campaign is to raise awareness on maternal health and Girls Education.
Specifically this advocacy drive is aimed at:
 Educating the public the collaboration between the United Nations and the Government of Ghana in responding to the MDGs
 Demonstrate the UN's unique advantage to respond effectively to maternal health and girls' education through a harmonised, coherent and unified communication effort that enhances interagency collaboration.
 Improving the visibility of the UN and its agencies in its contribution to improving lives.
 Showcasing what the UN does in Ghana

The One UN Advocacy Campaign
The UN in Ghana is taking the opportunity of the commemoration of the United Nations at 69 to launch an advocacy campaign on Maternal Health and Girls Education. The media launch takes place at the forecourt of UNDP on the 24th October 2014 at 12:00 noon after the Flag raising ceremony.

Timeframe for this Campaign: 24 October - 31 December 2014
This joint effort does not replace the efforts of individual agencies. Instead, it enhances interagency collaboration through a strategic coordinated and coherent approach and aimed at harmonizing messages, magnifying overall voice and impact.

MATERNAL HEALTH:
Maternal health is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. It encompasses the health care dimensions of family planning, preconception, prenatal and postnatal care in order to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.
Preconception care can include education, health promotion, screening and other interventions among women of reproductive age to reduce risk factors that might affect future pregnancies. The goal of prenatal care is to detect any potential complications of pregnancy early, to prevent them if possible, and to direct the woman to appropriate specialist medical services as appropriate. Postnatal care issues include recovery from childbirth, concerns about newborn care, nutrition, breastfeeding, and family planning.

Problem:
In Ghana the situation is grim:
• 60% of infant and 40% underfive mortality occur in newborn period.
• Every hour, around 90 newborn babies die (every 15 minutes 1) in Ghana with total annual newborn deaths of 32,000. More than 70% of these deaths occur during delivery process and first 24 hours of birth.
• Ghana has a high maternal mortality ratio – 350/100,000 live births (2010 UN MMEIG)
• The CPR is low 23.4% (Modern methods MICS 2011)
• Unmet need for contraceptives is high at 26.4% (MICS 2011)
• 40% of women do not have skilled attendance at birth (Skilled attendance at birth is 60%)
• There is also high child mortality rates
Indicators:
• Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel [Baseline 2012: 59%; Target 2016: 85%]
• Percentatge of married women using any modern contraceptive method MAF) [Baseline 2008: 17%; Target 2016: 28%]
• Proportion of children with moderate acute malnutrition recovered through supplementary feeding programmes [baseline 2012: 58%--, target 80%]
Interventions by the United Nations in Ghana (2014):
• To improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality, service providers are trained in life saving skills to enable them deliver. Supervised delivery is promoted and family planning acceptance is encouraged. This is done nationwide with focus on UN operational regions of Upper East Region, Upper West Region, Northern Region, Ashanti Region and BrongAhafo Region.
• Activities target 157 midwives and 70 Community health nurses in 25 districts in contraceptive techniques.
• 262 midwives and 575 community health nurses/officers trained in skill delivery including Lifesaving skills.
• Capacity of 231 midwives and 145 community health nurses/officers benefiting from Emergency Obstetric and Newborn care management
• Regional Level Executive Forum on Maternal and Newborn Health to be held in all the 10 regions across the country from September – December 2014

Gains:

• Commodities worth 3,742,331USD have been ordered with ongoing delivery. Contraceptives and oxytocin included
• National Executive Forum on Newborn Health was organized on 30 July by the Ministry of Health Ghana. National Newborn Strategy was launched at this Forum. Please find the Strategy document and links of media coverage.

Partners:
Government of Ghana; USAID; DFID; Ghana Health Service; UNFPA; IP; PATH; Ministry of Health; Regional Coordinating Councils; District Assemblies; JHPIEGO; MCHUNFPA

GIRLS' EDUCATION:
Ghana, like many other African countries, has taken a number of initiatives to improve school enrolment and quality of education over the years. The Education Sector Reforms of the mid-
1980s, the development of the Free Compulsory Universal and Basic Education (FCUBE) Programme in the 1990s, the preparation of the Education Strategic Plan 2003 – 2005, educational reform policies such as the capitation grant, school feeding program, one laptop per child and provision of free school uniforms for school children, are some of the initiatives geared towards improving the quality of education, increasing access and improving education management.

According to the 2010 national census, nearly 500,000 children aged between 6-14years are out of school. Not as many girls as boys are participating in education, particularly in deprived districts. Gender parity keeps deteriorating in deprived districts.

Problem:

• The transition rate from P6 to JHS1 fell slightly from 94.5% in 2012/13 to 92.7% in 2013/14, suggesting that a lower proportion of Primary completers were able to transition to JHS than the year before. The proportion of girls can be as much as 30 percent lower.
• Basic Education Completion Exam (BECE): boys tend to perform better than girls, with a higher proportion of boys receiving above average grades than girls in Maths, Science and Social Studies. However girls performed better than boys in English.
• The transition rate from JHS3 to SHS1 increased from 61% to 68%, suggesting more of the students completing basic education are able to enter SHS.
• In SHS, The gender parity index on GER increased from 0.86 to 0.91, and the proportion of enrolment which is female from 45.9% to 46.9%.The transition rate from JHS3 to SHS1 is actually higher for females (69%) than for males (67%), and the gap in fact widened between 2012/13 and 2013/14, indicating that overall females are able to move from basic education into senior high school education when given the chance. The completion rate for SHS is higher for males (42%) than females (38%), suggesting more boys access the full cycle of secondary education, although this gap narrowed in the past year.
• Being poor, being a girl, living in a rural area, having an uneducated mother, having a disability, or belonging to a particular group, caste or ethnicity substantially reduces the chance of going to school or staying in school.

Interventions by the United Nations in Ghana:
The United Nations, in partnership with other organisations, supports the government of Ghana to ensure that disadvantaged and excluded children are empowered and able to begin school and attend school regularly. Specific interventions include:
• Nationwide capacity building for Regional and District Girls' Education Officers to enhance their skills at supporting girls' access and retention in schools within their districts.
• Targeted training was done for 12 districts with low GPI on eradicating school-related gender based violence.
• Ghana Education Service (GES) collaborated with sector donor partners to design and pilot Girls Participatory Approaches to Students Success (PASS) Programme aimed at providing scholarships to 55,000, girls to facilitate girls' access and retention in school. This was carried out in 17 deprived districts.
• 176 districts carried out training of school-based facilitators in the running of girls club, training 4,400 school-based facilitators and 4,400 head teachers. Monitoring of 450 girls' clubs was carried out in 3 districts in each region.
• Annual learning conference organized for all Regional/District Girls Education Officers (R/DGEOs) on a single platform to learn, share ideas, and network.

Gains:

• Evidence suggests that investing early, keeping girls in school for longer, and focusing on learning outcomes (as opposed to years in school) have particularly strong dividends for the health, wealth and stability of societies
• Over 200 District level Girls Education Officers, as well as their national and regional level counterparts, have strengthened their capacity on girl focused actions such as using Sports as a tool to attract out of school children, especially girls and keeping them in school.
• Girls Education Officers now know how to help young girls to develop leadership skills, advocate and sensitise parents to allow their daughters to participate in schooling and sports. Sensitization on menstrual hygiene. It is expected that the knowledge and skills acquired by the officers will be useful in their work in mentoring and advocating for over 2,705,831 girls in basic schools (KG, Primary and Junior High School) as well as many others who are not currently enrolled in school in the country.
• Each of the 12 districts now has a core team that sensitise communities on school-based gender related violence and the pitfalls of child marriage, a major barrier to transition of girls to higher levels.
• Providing a full access, needs-based material support package comprising all the items necessary for a girl to attend Junior High School (JHS) is key. This includes paying BECE examination fees, raising awareness of and promoting girls education, and increasing the capacity of the Girls Education Unit Head Office and District and Regional Officers.
• An initial review attended by 40 officers, discussed ways of fostering stronger collaboration among stakeholders and partners. The participants also shared information on best practices in their line of work. As a result of the success of this review, the Girls' Education Unit has decided to continue to hold annual reviews to address emerging issues in girls' education. The Unit has also decided to expand participation in the review meetings to include major stakeholders in the promotion of girls' education such as Development Partners, NGOs, faith-based organisations and traditional leaders. With assistance from UNICEF, this expanded meeting will be held before October, 2014.
• The Girls' Education Unit now has capacity to organise and facilitate review workshops at both national and district levels and to use the results of the discussions to update, develop or mainstream girls' education issues into sector action plans.

Partners:

Government of Ghana; Right to Play; DFID; WB; UNICEF

Eric Joe Ayivi
Eric Joe Ayivi

News Editor

body-container-line