New York (USA) 10 May 2002 - The Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has called on the international community to make the African children case the first priority in implementing the Millennium Declaration by world leaders.

The world leaders promised by that Declaration to cut by half the number of people living on less than one dollar a day, ensure that all boys and girls of primary school going age would be in school, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, prevent war and protect the earths resources by the year 2015.

Alhaji Mahama made the call on Wednesday when addressing the 27th session of the United Nations General Assembly Forum on Children, which is being attended by about 60 Head of States, 350 children and over 1,000 NGOs working on children's issues.

Other members on the Ghanaian delegation include Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, the First Lady and Mrs. Gladys Asmah, Minister for Women and Children Affairs. "We in Africa acknowledge that it is our responsibility to ensure the well being of children on our continent but unfortunately we are unable to meet all this important obligation", he said.

Alhaji Mahama said many African countries like Ghana have adopted polices and programmes in pursuit of the best interest of children but they have not been able to fully realise the desired goals for these children because of lack of resources.

He said the fluctuations in the world prices of Africa's export commodities, coupled with high petroleum prices on the international market, growing external debt and dwindling official development assistance have eroded limited resources available for the care of children.

Alhaji Mahama said the Sub-Saharan African region has the highest number of child mortality rates, lowest immunization coverage and the lowest school enrollment rates. The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS and armed conflicts continues to deepen the persistent poverty faced by Africa's children, the vice-president said.

Ghana, he said, is making every effort to mobilise local resources to improve the situation of her children through the National Partnership for Children. Alhaji Mahama noted that a major achievement over the decade in relation to the convention on the Rights of the Child in Ghana, has been the process of law reform on children, which began in 1995.

He said health access to primary health care services and facilities have improved in the last decade. The vice president said for example, immunization on measles whooping cough and Polio is near 90 percent and Ghana is beginning to win the fight against polio. Infant mortality rate, he said has also reduced from 103 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 56 per 1,000 in 1998. Alhaji Mahama said a free compulsory basic education programme was launched in 1996 and this has remarkably improved the primary school attendance.

Ghana has also established a girls education unit to give special attention to their education and to reduce the drop out rate, he said. Alhaji Mahama told the world leaders that Ghana, in 1992 formulated a 10-year national programme of action dubbed "The Child Cannot Wait" with a mechanism for monitoring the progress on its implementation.

He said Ghana's commitment to these goals is further buttressed by the appointment of a Minister of cabinet rank for Women and children, adding that: "This is to ensure that the issues of gender disparity, which have negative impact on children, are addressed.