Context

One of the key recommendations of Ghana’s Roadmap for Radical Reduction of Plastic Pollution (2021)4 is to promote inclusion. This means that the work of the GH-NPAP must be responsive to the needs and obstacles faced by marginalized communities. Such communities include persons with disabilities, those living in poverty, women, ethnically marginalized populations, migrants, elderly, youth, children/child pickers and the community. Results from the Intersectional and Inclusive Social Context Assessment of Ghana’s Informal Plastics and Plastics Waste Sector study across 6 regions revealed that about 15% of waste pickers were children between the ages of 5-12, with the Northern Region having about 80% of its total waste pickers being children. This has a higher negative implication on school attendance and general health such as visible skin infections, diarrhea, coughing and runny nose. About 80% of the respondents that fell within the children’s category were not in school. Only 20% of child pickers went to school, but not consistently. The assessment found about 40% of the child pickers to be the breadwinners of their families as their parents or caregivers are not working. Other children on the landfills were either accompanying their parents or sent by their external relatives they live with or on their own decision. The study also highlighted that child pickers were mostly faced with challenges such as Physical injuries/deaths Additionally, even though there are supposed to be standard prices at the regional landfills which differ from region to region, women, elderly, and child pickers get less for their materials due to scale adjustment. The Intersectional and Inclusive Social Context Assessment of Ghana’s Informal Plastics and Plastics Waste Sector report thus called for close collaboration between relevant stakeholders such as traditional authorities, the Social Welfare Department under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and other relevant stakeholders revamp child protection committees at the community level or (at the least) in communities with a high rate of child waste pickers.

Action

The Department of Social Welfare a Government statutory Agency under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) was one of the key stakeholders that was invited and participated in the Launch of the Intersectional and Inclusive Social Context Assessment of Ghana’s Informal Plastics and Plastics Waste Sector report in May 2024. The representatives of the Department of Social Welfare following the launch event which afforded them the visibility into this issue have undertaken steps to ensure that the issue of child pickers is captured as one of the protection concerns in Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS)

Result

Capturing the issue of child pickers as a national protection concern in the Social Welfare Information Management System (SWIMS) will ensure that Officers at the various line of work that is from the grass root( District Social Welfare case workers at the MMDA's) to the top(Regional Social Welfare Case Managers, the National Case Manager and the National Administrator at the Ministry) report on them for various interventions in our social protection programs such as LEAP