Ghana unveils new Diploma in Social Work, boosts workforce training with UNICEF partnership

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) launched a new accredited diploma course at the School of Social Work and concluded a critical in-service training program, significantly strengthening Ghana's child protection system.

These initiatives, supported by UNICEF Ghana, directly address the long-standing challenge of a critical shortage of formally trained social workers-particularly among district Social Welfare and Community Development Officers who manage complex cases nationwide.

By professionalizing this essential workforce, Ghana is better positioned to alleviate poverty, combat violence, and reduce inequality, contributing significantly to over 65 percent of its Sustainable Development Goal targets.

The in-service training, supported by UNICEF since 2024, was recently concluded, and the diploma course has now officially launched following its long-awaited accreditation.

These advancements are taking place within Ghana's social welfare sector, with direct impact across the nation's 180 districts currently utilizing the Integrated Social Services (ISS) approach. The ISS approach brings child protection, social protection, health, education and justice services together to address multiple protection concerns and vulnerabilities of children and their families. It is implemented by seven Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including MoGCSP.

UNICEF's extensive support, which includes tools like the Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS) and the Child Protection Community Facilitation Toolkit, has already provided direct services to over 300,000 people and delivered prevention messages to 8 million across 5,600 communities in Ghana.

Owned by MoGCSP, SWIMS is a national digital case management tool used by social welfare officers and Civil Society Organisations who manage child protection and gender-based violence cases in Ghana.

UNICEF and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection are committed to reviewing and developing new five-year strategies to strengthen workforce capacity building, while urgently calling for the passage of the Social Work Profession Bill to legally regulate and license social workers in Ghana.