Single Parent Families In Ghana

Many children in Ghana live in single parent families, a growing phenomenon caused by the high rate of divorce or separation. In 2012, for example, Ghana had three times the number of divorces in England and Wales (www.peacefmonline.com). Due to patriarchal nature of the Ghanaian society, a common arrangement for separated parents is for children to live with their mother while the father provides financial support for the children. The Ghana Living Standards Survey Report indicates that 30% of households were headed by a single parent of whom 24% were made up of a female parent with children (GSS, 2008).

Maintenance of children has been a major child welfare issue in Ghana for several decades. As far back as 1955, the most frequent clients

However, some irresponsible fathers use poverty only as an excuse to shirk their responsibilities. They fail to maintain children because they deny paternity, have a poor relationship with the child’s mother or because the mother is ignorant of the legal provisions. In addition, certain cultural practices impede child maintenance. For example, some patrilineal descent systems fail to acknowledge fathers of children born outside marriage (Lund & Agyei-Mensah, 2008). The child's grandparents assume parental responsibility, denying such children the right to maintenance from their natural

Mensa-Bonsu (1994) suggests that though the Courts often share the responsibility of maintenance among parents, the custodial mother’s contribution to the physical care of the child is not considered in calculating maintenance payment. Fathers are mandated to provide financial support in the form of monthly allowances, school fees while mothers are supposed to provide care and supplement the monthly allowances. This disadvantages mothers since they carry the bulk of the responsibility in the maintenance of children (Kpoor 2014). The Children’s Act gives only the Courts the power to enforce maintenance orders. This increases the workload of courts; resulting in delay in administration of justice for custodial mothers and lack of respect for DSW by non custodial