Mrs Ruth Addison, National Coordinator of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, has called for adequate budgetary allocation for effective implementation of the ECCD policy.
The ECCD policy document was launched by the Ministry in 2004 to see to among other things the total well-being of children aged 0-8 years.
Mrs Addison made the call at an orientation meeting for Municipal and District Coordinators of the ECCD in Sunyani.
She stressed that monitoring and evaluation as well as advocacy and capacity building of the agencies and departments responsible for the implementation of the policy were very critical.
Mrs Addison noted that children were regarded as future leaders of every country and that issues affecting them should therefore be given the needed attention to guarantee their total well -being and development.
She appealed to Municipal and District Assemblies to consider incorporating ECCD activities into their budgets and also assist in
the implementation of the policy.
Mrs Olivia Avudzega, Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, explained that the holistic upbringing and development of children was a shared
responsibility.
She appealed to the general public to report cases of abuse and neglect against children to the Department for the law to take its course.
"There is the need for every child to feel the joy of childhood", she stated and appealed to parents to endeavour to provide them with the basic necessities of life.
Mrs Avudzega called on churches and other religious groupings to use the pulpit to educate parents on the need to invest much of their resources in the education of their children to
enable them to become responsible adults.
Throwing more light on the implementation of the ECCD policy in Brong-Ahafo, Mr George Yaw Ankomah, Deputy Regional Director of the Department of Children, said ECCD committees
had been formed at the district level to initiate, plan, implement and monitor ECCD programmes.
He said the committees had been clustered into six zones in the region and the orientation meetings had been organised in each zone to build the capacities of members in the implementation of the policy.
Mr Ankomah appealed to Municipal and District Assemblies to support activities of the ECCD at the local level.