Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has assured that government would continue to expand its social protection programmes to enhance the lives of the poor and vulnerable in the society.
He also stated that the social protection interventions had the potential to improve the productivity of people and support domestic demand and stimulate economic growth.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur gave the assurance when he launched the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) at the Premises of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in Accra.
The GNHR is a tool by government to establish a database of households from which all the social protection programmes in Ghana would select their respective beneficiaries.
Besides, data from the registry would also be used for public policy planning and management as well as research and development in the areas of social protection for the poor and vulnerable.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur also stated that the lack of data on welfare indicators in Ghana posed a challenge in the design of social protection interventions.
He said the launch of the GNHR would improve the targeting of interventions and contribute to eliminating the pockets of poverty that exist in the country.
He explained that the GNHR involved the basic collection of information on the socio-economic status of the citizens in the households.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur stated that by identifying the vulnerable households, it enabled social protection programmes to effectively target the people who are most in need.
He said developing a National Household Registry (NHR) was therefore an important element to effective social protection programmes.
The Vice- President said in recent times social protection programmes were becoming common throughout the world and the number of African countries implementing them between 2010 -2013 increased from 21 to 37.
He said social protection was an important means for addressing poverty, vulnerability and exclusion, adding that, social protection produces social justice.
Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, stated that the purpose for the establishment of the GNHR was to create a record of households from which all the social protection interventions in the country could select their potential beneficiaries.
She said statistics from the registry would be used for public policy planning and management as well as research and development in the areas of social protection for the poor and vulnerable.
She said the single household registry would help to eliminate duplication in the selection of beneficiaries and reduce cost, adding that, the efficient implementation of the GNHR would help in the proper targeting of people and make it transparent and fair.
<<Print>>