African meeting of child protection actors in Accra – Ghana “34 years of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: where are we?”

African meeting of child protection actors in Accra – Ghana

“34 years of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: where are we?”

The African meeting of child protection actors was held from 19 to 26 November 2023 in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It began with a day of advocacy on Monday 20 November to address the following question «34 years of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: where are we?».

The various speakers, Edwin de Boevé director of Dynamo International, Moussa Sow coordinator region Africa, Joyce Kulevo coordinator of the Ghanaian national platform, members of Dynamo International – Street Workers Network and Evonn Normen Director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. From the outset, we were plunged into the problems concerning the respect and the guarantee of the rights of the child and noted the importance of Observation 21 of the United Nations for the specific protection of children in street situations.

A group of young people told us in the form of testimonies their past experiences on the street and the realities currently facing street children, it was poignant.

Ms Evonn Normen stressed the importance of promoting intersectoral collaboration for the effective delivery of social services, to protect and make sustainable the education and well-being of African children but also for an upstream prevention policy.

Mr Moussa Sow, questioned the assembly on the situation of young people in Africa, subjects of rights. The African continent faces wars, armed conflicts, unacceptable poverty rates, children and young people are victims of forced immigration, the number of children in street situations increases year after year. Sad observation that often finds as an answer, a cleaning strategy to make our streets cleaner, it is necessary to take them off the streets. The street and the populations that occupy it as a public space, are not a problem, it is what we do with it that reflects our well-being.

This was the challenge of this meeting, to understand how street social work responds to these challenges and how to make the world better thanks to the many actors on the ground who intervened during this week during conferences and workshops.