Speaking at a public dissemination seminar on the topic: "Street Children in Ghana and the Sustainable Development Goal", she said carefully reviewed child-related policies and programmes in the country reveal that street children have always been left behind and policies crafted for them are yet to achieve the desired effect.

This was made known after a study on street children was conducted in Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions.

She said 61,492 persons below the age of 18 were working on the streets in the Greater Accra in 2011 and that 65 per cent of these children live and work on the streets.

Dr Dankyi said society's negative attitude towards street children is a major worry and called on stakeholders to intensify efforts to improve the lot of such children. 

The seminar, held at the University of Ghana brought together relevant stakeholders including the institutions working with street children, representatives from relevant MDAs, academia, child rights Advocates, religious bodies, development partners and the private sector to deliberate on forging sustainable partnerships towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for street children in the country.

Dr Dankyi said street children represent a vulnerable group that is furthest behind in terms of development and if the goal to leave no one behind is to be achieved, then measures must be put in place to target their needs.

She said, "Street children have always been a big challenge for us as a country and in my first encounter with them in 2002, where I did my study on the second generation of street children, I realized that the situation was not getting any better".