The purpose of the SPEI is to “restore hope to single parents families”. Under the initiative, the lives of single parent families who have been devastated by divorce, separation or death will be empowered through community-based innovative philanthropy programmes, skills training and empowerment projects in Accra and beyond.
According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2011), an estimated 17% of children are living with neither biological parent. Informal foster care has typically been used as a ‘safety net’ for children from poor families who live with and receive support from relatively wealthier family members as much as a protection mechanism for children at risk of deprivation or who have experienced maltreatment primarily within the home. Hence, SPEI intends to offer a sustainable alternative measure to address parenting and child support issues.
Due to deterioration of the family system, preliminary findings from the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) in 2013 found that 23.4% of children aged 5–14 years were engaged in some form of economic activity.

These children are mainly involved in the services industry, mining and quarrying, apprenticeships and household help. It is estimated that there are approximately 33,000 children living and/or working on the streets. The majority are girls and they remain particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and sexual exploitation. These are the effects of a disempowered and an unsupported single parent or a broken family system.