The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has launched a National Social Protection Policy to mitigate vulnerabilities, close the inequality gap and ensure total inclusion for all Ghanaians.
The policy will deliver a well-coordinated, inter-sectorial social protection system enabling people to live in dignity through income support, livelihood empowerment and improved access to basic services.
It also seeks to promote the wellbeing of Ghanaians through an integrated platform of effective social assistance, social inclusion, social insurance and financial access to social services.
Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, speaking at the launch, announced that government, through legal and policy arrangements, has established strong systems and structures to protect the most vulnerable and excluded persons in society.
She noted that President John Dramani Mahama created her ministry in 2013 with a three-fold mandate, which is to ensure gender equality through gender mainstream considerations, promote the welfare and protection of children, and empower the excluded, aged and persons with disability through the use of social protection intervention to achieve national development.
The Social Protection, she said, signifies the commitment of the country’s social democratic government to put people at the heart of social protection commitments.
Nana Oye Lithur commended the Social Protection Working Group for how instrumental they have been in the journey to come up with the National Social Protection Policy.
To build further on the policy, government, she said, has also developed a Social Protection Bill that is currently with the Attorney-General’s Department for consideration.
“The bill and policy will go to strengthen our legal environment, creating a stronger social protection framework that empowers and protects all citizens,” she added.
Representing President John Dramani Mahama, the Minister in charge of Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Dr Rashid Pelpuo, said the policy aims at empowering the vulnerable to achieve greater development of the economy.
Stemming from the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) One of eradicating extreme poverty, he said, the policy is a governance structure with the ability to co-ordinate social development goals.
“This policy sets us on the path in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG),” he noted.
Lauding the initiative, he opined that it is the goal of government to ensure equal opportunities for all.
The Social Protection Policy covers initial social intervention programmes such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) programme, Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and EBAN Elderly Welfare Card Project.
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