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Mr Mawutor Ablo, Director in charge of Social Protection, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), has appealed to the media to show more commitment to issues of social protection. This, he said, would enable the populace, especially the less privileged to know more about the interventions government had put in place to support them and how they could also access them like the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme. Mr Ablo, who was speaking at a day's workshop for journalists on social protection in Accra, said social protection programmes had been cited the world over as one of the best means of alleviating poverty and bridging the gap between the poor and rich. The workshop on the theme: "The Emergence of Social Protection on the Development Agenda: The Role of the Media," was organised by the African Development Programmme, a think tank. He called for the harmonisation of all social protection programmes in the country, adding that the MGCSP had submitted a memo to cabinet on that score. He said the harmonisation of such programmes would help to eliminate or minimise overlapping and effective implementation of such programmes. He said MOGCSP had set up a National Targeting Unit aimed at collating a database on all potential beneficiaries of social intervention programmes as well as database on the poor in every region and district in the country. Mr Charles Abbey, Executive Director, African Development Programme, said a properly implemented social intervention programme should be able to cater for the needs of the poor during their childhood, their working age and old age. Dr William Ahadzie, Senior Fellow, African Development Programme, called for the streamlining of the LEAP programme to enable those who are truly poor benefit as it had been detected that some people who do not fall between the categories outlined for the Programme were taking advantage of it.