Accra, Ghana, October 31, 2026: Ghana is seeking to recruit approximately 2,400 social welfare and community development personnel to address staffing shortages and strengthen child protection services across the country.
The Head of the Local Government Service, Professor Lord Mensah, announced the proposed recruitment at a stakeholder engagement on strengthening collaboration between Community Child Protection Committees (CCPCs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Accra.
He said visits to assemblies in the Northern, Savannah and North East regions had revealed significant gaps in the availability of social welfare personnel, with some districts having only one officer while others had none.
In the Savannah Region, he cited instances where a single officer was expected to serve hundreds of communities, making it difficult to respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable children and families.
Professor Mensah warned that inadequate staffing could result in cases of child abuse and neglect going unreported or experiencing delays in intervention, exposing affected children to further harm.
The proposed recruitment is intended to strengthen the capacity of district assemblies to provide professional social welfare services and respond to cases of abuse, neglect, exploitation and other threats to children's well-being.
He also called on MMDAs to identify local child protection needs, mobilise resources and provide dedicated funding for interventions, stressing that adequate personnel must be supported with the financial resources required to deliver services.
The engagement, organised by SOS Children's Villages Ghana in collaboration with JoyNews and supported by Norway, brought together approximately 90 stakeholders from Ada East, Ada West, Adaklu, Ekumfi and Sene West districts.
It focused on strengthening collaboration between CCPCs and local authorities and ensuring that community-level child protection activities were incorporated into district development plans and budgets.
The Country Director of SOS Children's Villages Ghana, Mr Alexander Mar Kekula, said community-level interventions could not be sustained without financial commitments from district assemblies.
He explained that CCPCs played important roles in sensitising communities, identifying children at risk, making referrals and addressing harmful practices. However, much of their work remained dependent on donor-funded projects.
He said the five participating districts were expected to develop costed child protection activity plans for 2027 and incorporate them into their Annual Action Plans and composite budgets.
Professor Mensah also disclosed that he was advocating for portions of the District Assemblies Common Fund to be earmarked for departments such as Social Welfare and Community Development, which do not receive direct central government funding.
The Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF Ghana, Ms Lucia Soleti, said a 2025 assessment had scored Ghana's child protection system 62 points for maturity, with financing and workforce capacity identified as its weakest areas.
She reported that Integrated Social Services had been extended to all 261 MMDAs in 2026, while more than 62,000 cases had been entered into the Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS) by June 2026. More than 7,000 social service workers had also received training on referral pathways.
The engagement highlighted the need to strengthen the workforce, improve district-level financing and sustain community-based interventions to ensure that children at risk receive timely and appropriate protection.
