Ghana
Supporting children to reach their full potential
The Government of Ghana has made a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on access to quality early childhood development services.
As a significant milestone, Ghana launched its first multi-sectoral early childhood care and development (ECCD) policy in 2004. This pioneering move has led to remarkable progress, particularly in expanding access to early childhood education (ECE) programmes for children between the ages of 3 and 6. In 2018, the government strengthened its commitment to children under the age of 3 by publishing the ECCD Standards for 0-3 years. Building on these standards, in 2019 there was a call to action to adopt UNICEF’s Nurturing Care Framework. This emphasised the government’s pledge to ensure good health, provide adequate nutrition, maintain safety and security, offer responsive caregiving, and create opportunities for learning.
Thrive’s objective in Ghana is to craft and execute a comprehensive national research agenda. This agenda will bolster national systems and address the global early childhood development priority of producing compelling evidence on how to effectively scale quality early childhood development programmes. Ultimately, our aim is to support children throughout Ghana and beyond in reaching their full potential.
Consistent with this direction, the Thrive Ghana research aims to:
- Bolster the Government of Ghana’s endeavours in executing its current early childhood education policy, ensuring children aged 4-5 years receive quality education, and
- Produce evidence that aids in shaping early childhood development policy, with a focus on children aged 0-3 years.
Project approach
At the heart of our approach is an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and context-sensitive research methodology.
This methodology is designed to inform policy and practice as well as deepen our understanding of what children in Ghana need to thrive. Maintaining research integrity and objectivity, our studies are designed and executed by teams of local and international researchers in close collaboration with national stakeholders, which includes policymakers, bureaucrats, practitioners, NGOs, and international organisations.
Their insights are integral throughout the research cycle, shaping the questions we tackle and guiding our interpretation of outcomes. This collaborative model ensures both domestic ownership and the practical application of our findings.
Our Ghana partners
- IPA
- Lively Minds
- IFS
- Data Pivot
- PDA
