Child Protection Compact Partnerships – Ghana

U.S.-Ghana Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership (2015–2020)

On June 23, 2015, former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama expressed his commitment to address child trafficking in Ghana and hosted the signing of the first Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Ghana at Flagstaff House in Accra.

The U.S.-Ghana CPC Partnership was a five-year plan aimed at bolstering efforts of the Government of Ghana and Ghanaian civil society to address forced child labor within Ghana and child sex trafficking.  By promoting collaboration to build coordinated systems of justice and protection, the Partnership worked to hold perpetrators of child sex and labor trafficking accountable under Ghanaian law, provide comprehensive services for child trafficking victims, and expand child trafficking prevention and awareness.

Foreign Assistance Awards to Support the U.S.-Ghana CPC Partnership

The Partnership facilitated the award of $6.9 million in U.S. foreign assistance through two implementing partners, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Free the Slaves (FTS).  The Partnership formally ended on June 23, 2020.

IOM and FTS worked collaboratively with the CPC Partnership Technical Committee, a Ghanaian interagency group led by Ghana’s Human Trafficking Secretariat, to achieve the Partnership’s goals and objectives that included improvements in the “4Ps” of anti-trafficking efforts – prosecution, protection, prevention, and partnership.

In support of Ghana’s commitments to the Partnership, the government:

• Finalized and expended funds ($111,960 over three years) to implement its National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Human Trafficking in Ghana, 2017-2021.
• Increased the staff and the operating budget of the Human Trafficking Secretariat and invested more resources in training officials and raising awareness of human trafficking at the national, regional, district, and community levels.
• Used the Human Trafficking Fund (in 2018 and 2019) to create a new shelter for adults and to support direct services for child and adult victims of human trafficking.
• Identified more trafficking victims using new SOPS for identifying and referring victims.
• Significantly improved cooperation among police, social welfare workers, and NGOs to safely remove more children from trafficking situations and provide them with comprehensive care.
• Increased its efforts to enforce Ghana’s Human Trafficking Act (no traffickers convicted under the Human Trafficking Act in 2015 and 2016; 10 traffickers convicted in 2019.)
• Adopted, but did not fully implement, a trafficking in persons data collection system.
• Was ranked Tier 2 in the TIP Report (2018-2020), after three years on the Tier 2 Watch List.

In support of the United States’ commitments to the Partnership, IOM and FTS:

• Worked with communities, police, and social welfare workers to remove 160 children from trafficking situations and to reintegrate 220 children with their families.
• Trained 369,705 community members on child rights and risks, therefore increasing public awareness of child trafficking indicators.
• Identified 230 at-risk children and enabled communities to protect them from trafficking.
• Provided 618 trafficking survivors with socio-economic services such as vocational training.
• Provided 400 trafficking victims with medical and psycho-social services.
• Trained 177 traditional authorities and district and community government officials on how to appropriately respond to cases of child trafficking.
• Trained and supported journalists to better report on trafficking by encouraging reporting that focuses on the impact of trafficking on children and their families.
• Established and supported 45 Village Savings and Loan Associations, which led to improvements in the financial economy of the communities.
• Launched 11 local radio broadcasts on child trafficking that were active in 60 communities, as well as radio messages that reached approximately 212,041 people across Ghana.
• Organized 22 training programs for more than 675 Ghanaian officials (police and immigration officers, prosecutors, judges, and social welfare workers). Trained officials identified and removed 207 child trafficking victims from exploitative situations and referred them for care and arrested 28 alleged traffickers.
• Worked with the government to develop and implement a TIP data collection system, as well as Standard Operating Procedures to identify, screen, and refer trafficking victims.
• Supported the refurbishment of a government shelter for child trafficking victims.