Madam Ethel Emefa Ehla, the Project Manager for Girls Life Choices at Savana Signatures made this known at a stakeholders' workshop in Tamale and said the project was a child protection one with a livelihood empowerment component.

The workshop brought together stakeholders from institutions such as the Ghana Education Service, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Ghana Police Service and the Department of Children.

The one year project scheduled to end next year, is being implemented by Savana Signatures in partnership with UNICEF, and funded by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Madam Ehla said the project was aimed at improving the urgency of girls regarding their sexuality to be better positioned to cater for themselves to avoid teenage pregnancies and child marriages and said research had proven that economic empowerment built the urgency in women.

Bagzaa Naa Issahaku Alhassan, a Gender, Health and Development Advocate, said child marriages in Ghana, especially the Northern Region, was as result of high rate of illiteracy and low use of contraceptives.

He said there was the need for parents to produce children taking into consideration their economic strengths, to avoid instances of children fending for themselves, and indicated that the children became vulnerable in attempts to help themselves.

He urged parents to give their children the best of training to make them useful adults in future and to contribute to economic growth.

She further encouraged parents to space childbirth to enable them give quality care to them.

Mr Sanday Iddrisu, the Northern Regional Director of the Department of Children, lauded the project and said early child marriage affected both sexes, but girls were affected more and disproportionately.

He advised parents not to see their girls as burdens and indicated that most female children were married off because they were considered financial burdens to their families.