Government plans to spend GH¢1.3 billion on social protection programmes this year.
Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mrs Mona Quartey, announced this in a solidarity message during the launch of Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR).
The GNHR will ensure that the information of all vulnerable groups is properly captured to enable the effective administration of social intervention programmes.
The much-awaited registry, which would also foster effective co-ordination of programmes being run by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, would catapult government’s agenda to wipe out poverty in the country.
Mrs Quartey said government has significantly increased its pro-poor spending in a bid to address income inequality and reduce poverty.
She hinted that to help mitigate any negative impact of the fiscal adjustments the country is currently implementing, government has committed to spend a minimum of GH¢1.3 billion on social protection.
While commending the gender ministry for the initiative, Mrs Mona Quartey urged the ministry to involve the Ghana Statistical Service in the targeting process since they already have the poverty maps which can effectively complement the work of the targeting unit in charge of the implementation of the national household registry.
Delivering the keynote address, Vice-President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur underscored the need for social protection programmes and their role in poverty reduction.
According to him, Ghana’s poverty reduction since 1991 from 36.5% to 8.4% in 2013 is largely attributed to its social protection programmes. However, the weakness in its progress monitoring capacity is the absence of a national household registry.
He intimated that Ghana is the first in the West African sub-region, and its successful implementation will be of a great learning amongst the ECOWAS member states, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of social protection programmes.
He explained that the 2012 manifesto of the governing NDC decided to pursue two priorities: Consolidate the various social protection programmes being implemented by various ministries, and that include LEAP, LESDEP, School Feeding, Free School Uniforms, so as to harmonise programmes and increase effectiveness; Secondly, to develop an integrated programme for the registration of all persons above a specific age, school children, persons with disability, including those facing chronic poverty, into a common database for purposes of targeting them for social protection interventions.
Vice-President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur noted that the first part of the manifesto pledge has been achieved, and the launch of the National Household Registry is the second part of the NDC’s manifesto pledge.
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, in her welcome address, stated that she strongly believes that with the social protection policy, legal and institutional arrangements, as well as the targeting unit, Ghana is ready to singlehandedly contribute to the elimination of all forms of poverty.
The GNHR, initiated by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, involves the registry of households and collection of basic information on their socioeconomic status to assist social protection programmes in identifying, prioritising and selecting households living in vulnerable conditions to ensure that different social programmes effectively reach their target populations.
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