HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS AND
2.6 B IRTH R EGISTRATION
Although Ghana has a legal and administrative structure stipulating official registration of births according to standard procedures, only 6 out of 10 births are registered annually. The practice of formally registering births is not widely adhered to in the country, even though the registration system was implemented over 100 years ago. Despite the existence of compulsory nationwide registration laws in the country, registration centres are highly inadequate and poorly equipped, especially in the rural areas, due to a number of reasons, the predominant one being inadequate financial resources (UNICEF 2013).
The Births and Deaths Registry Act 301 of 1965 requires the issuance of a birth certificate immediately after birth, free of charge. Until mid-2003, the legal period for free birth registration of infants was within 21 days of birth. However, since mid-2013, the period has been extended to 12 months, in order to encourage early registration of all births by parents or caretakers (Government of Ghana 1965).
Birth registration information was solicited for all children age 0-4 years. Table 2.9 presents the percentage of the de jure population under age 5 whose births are registered with the civil authorities, according to background characteristics. About 7 in 10 children under age 5 (71 percent) have their births registered: 56 percent are registered and have a birth certificate, while 15 percent are registered but do not have a birth certificate.
Children under age 2 (66 percent) are less likely to be registered than children age 2-4 (74 percent). Although not legally required, the registration of older children may be primarily due to the practice of asking for a child’s birth certificate for school admission.
Table 2.9 Birth registration of children under age 5
Percentage of de jure children under age 5 whose births are registered with the civil authorities, according to background characteristics, Ghana 2014
Children whose births are registered
Number of children
Housing Characteristics and Household Population • 23 Children in urban areas (79 percent) are notably more likely to be registered than those in rural areas (63 percent). At the regional level, only half of births in Volta are registered, as compared with more than 8 in 10 births registered in the Central and Ashanti regions (81 percent and 82 percent, respectively).
Birth registration increases with wealth, from 58 percent among children in the poorest households to 88 percent among children in the richest households.
2.7 C
HILDREN’
SL
IVINGA
RRANGEMENTS, O
RPHANHOOD,
ANDS
CHOOLA
TTENDANCE The 2014 GDHS collected information on living arrangements of children and orphanhood.Living arrangements should be monitored together with the proportion of foster and orphan children because of their significant effects on the comprehensive development of children.
Table 2.10 shows the percent distribution of children under age 18 by their living arrangements and survivorship of parents. Of the 19,074 children under age 18 reported in the 2014 GDHS, 55 percent live with both parents, 21 percent live with their mother only, although their father is alive, 4 percent live with their father only, although their mother is alive, and 13 percent live with neither of their natural or biological parents, although both parents are alive.
Table 2.10 Children’s living arrangements and orphanhood
Percent distribution of de jure children under 18 years of age by living arrangements and survival status of parents, the percentage of children not living with a biological parent, and the percentage of children with one or both parents dead, according to background characteristics, Ghana 2014
Living
mother Not living with either parent
Total Note: Table is based on de jure members, i.e., usual residents.
1 Includes children with father dead, mother dead, both dead, and one parent dead but missing information on survival status of the other parent.
Table 2.10 also provides information on the extent of orphanhood, that is, the proportion of children who have lost one or both parents. Less than 1 percent of children under age 18 have both parents dead and 8 percent have one or both parents dead. The percentage of children living with both biological parents decreases with increasing age of the child. This may be due to children moving to a relative’s house to pursue further education or seek work. Children in rural areas are more likely than those in urban areas to live with both parents (60 percent versus 49 percent). The Northern region (78 percent) has the highest proportion of children living with both parents and the Eastern region has the lowest proportion (45 percent).
By wealth status, the proportion of children under age 18 living with both parents shows a U-shaped pattern with increasing wealth quintile. The highest proportions are among children in the lowest and highest wealth quintiles (69 percent and 57 percent, respectively) and the lowest proportion is in the middle wealth quintile (44 percent).
In the 2014 GDHS, eligible women were asked if they had any sons or daughters to whom they had given birth, who were still alive, but who did not live with their mother at the time of the survey. For each identified child under age 18 who did not live with the mother, the respondent was asked where and with whom the children lived at the time of the interview. The findings are shown in Figure 2.2.
The majority of female and male children under age 18 who did not live with their mother at home at the time of the survey were living with relatives (90 percent). Six percent of females and 5 percent of males were living in boarding schools, and 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, were living with family or friends.
Figure 2.2 Children under age 18 living away from home:
Place or person with whom they currently live
Children orphaned or vulnerable by death or acute illness of one or both parents may or may not go to school. Often, these children are compelled to work to pay their school fees or eventually drop out to assist in family businesses. The 2014 GDHS collected information on school attendance of children age 10-14 by parental survival. The findings are presented in Table 2.11. Seventy-six percent of children age 10-14 whose both parents are deceased are attending school, an increase from 67 percent in 2008. Among children age 10-14 whose parents are both alive and who live with at least one parent, 81 percent are attending school, compared with 88 percent in 2008. The overall ratio of school attendance of children whose parents are dead to those whose parents are living (when the child resides with at least one parent) is 0.94. Further breakdown by background characteristics is not possible due to the small number of orphans (95 unweighted cases).
Relatives 90%
Family/friends 4%
Care home/
disability home
<1%
Boarding school 6%
Other
<1%
Females
Relatives 90%
Family/friends 3%
Care home/
disability home 1%
Boarding school 5%
Other 1%
Males
Housing Characteristics and Household Population • 25
Table 2.11 School attendance by survivorship of parents
For de jure children age 10-14 , the percentage attending school by parental survival and the ratio of the percentage attending, by parental survival, according to background characteristics, Ghana 2014
Percentage attending school by survivorship of parents
Background characteristic
Both parents
deceased Number
Both parents alive and living
with at least
one parent Number Ratio1 Sex
Male (78.2) 30 81.0 2,101 0.97
Female 74.5 45 81.3 1,816 0.92
Residence
Urban (71.0) 43 83.1 1,745 0.85
Rural 82.6 32 79.6 2,173 1.04
Region
Western * 10 93.8 366 0.61
Central * 7 51.9 363 1.23
Greater Accra * 14 82.1 620 1.22
Volta * 5 89.6 310 0.83
Eastern * 13 84.2 331 1.12
Ashanti * 10 80.0 828 0.87
Brong Ahafo * 8 88.9 345 0.60
Northern * 1 79.9 471 1.25
Upper East * 6 81.8 162 0.74
Upper West * 3 85.4 121 1.00
Wealth quintile
Lowest (79.2) 11 78.4 965 1.01
Second * 12 74.7 852 1.00
Middle * 16 84.0 746 0.74
Fourth * 30 85.0 709 1.01
Highest * 7 86.3 645 0.75
Total 76.0 75 81.1 3,918 0.94
Note: Table is based only on children who usually live in the household. Figures in parentheses are based on 25-49 unweighted cases. An asterisk indicates that a figure is based on fewer than 25 unweighted cases and has been suppressed.
1 Ratio of the percentage with both parents deceased to the percentage with both parents alive and living with a parent