The Construction of the Child in Ghanaian Welfare Policy

Abstract

Across Sub-Saharan Africa impoverished governments are dependent on grants and loans from international donors to support social and economic development. Funding streams from bilateral and multilateral agencies are commonly tied to international initiatives such as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Scheme, Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. These, in turn, homogenize notions of childhood which become embedded in national policies. Using Ghana as an exemplar, this chapter explores how international bodies influence policy formulation on child welfare in African countries. This study selects three key Government of Ghana policies, each concerned with a distinctive stage of childhood. The first, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy, centres on children aged up to eight. The second, the Education Strategic Plan 2003 to 2015, is focused on children in primary- and secondary-level schooling, while the third, the National Youth Policy of Ghana, addresses itself to those aged 15–35, but with an emphasis on teenaged youth. Taken together, these policies articulate the social construction of children in Ghanaian policy from birth through to early adulthood. Textural analysis of the policy documents draws on the work of Fairclough (2003: 39–61) in relation to dialogicality.