This Country Report gives a brief account of the approaches adopted and activities carried out by the various stakeholders, relevant Government and Non-Governmental organisations in the five years since the 2002 Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid and the adoption of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA).

The report describes various policies that the Ghanaian government have implemented to take care of the issue of the aged, including the National Social Protection Strategy 2006, Ghana National Disability Policy and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The report also describes the Draft Policy on Ageing.  The main goal of the Draft Policy is to promote the social, economic and cultural re-integration of older persons into mainstream society, to enable them participate fully and as far as practicable in national development and social life, while recognising their fundamental rights.

Some of the strategies of the draft policy on ageing include:

• creating a National Co-ordinating Institution on Ageing
• providing comprehensive health care programmes including professional age carers for older persons at both national and community levels
• promoting employment of older persons
• promoting community care facilities such as day care centres for older persons

The report looks at the demographic and socio-economic profile of ageing in Ghana, and goes on to describe the range of programmes that have been implemented to assist the elderly.

The report concludes that :

Whilst Ghana has made modest progress in the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, there are some challenges that should be addressed. These challenges include:

• the need to finalise the policy on aging and develop appropriate action plans for its implementation
• the need to strengthen and resource the Ministry of Manpower Youth and Employment (MMYE) and other institutions to effectively co-ordinate the implementation of the MIPAA
• modernisation is impacting both positively and negatively on traditional values. There is the need to project the positive elements of modernisation to benefit the aged

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