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Tag: Social Protection

  • Implement measures to stop begging on the streets – NGO to govt

    Implement measures to stop begging on the streets – NGO to govt

    A non-governmental organization (NGO), Child Rights International has stressed the necessity for the government to take a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of street children begging.

    The organization believes the government ought to consider several factors including control mechanisms, social welfare, and protecting the rights of children in dealing with the menace.

    The call comes on the back of the advice by the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to the public to desist from giving cash to child beggars.

    The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu at a press conference appealed to the public, especially residents of cities to restrain from giving cash to children engaging in begging, sometimes under dangerous circumstances on the streets.

    “We have done a lot to take them from the streets, but somehow they find themselves back, we even repatriated 400 of them and engaged the embassies here, but they find ways to come back, so we have to stop giving money to minors on the streets because as adults I don’t see why we should be giving monies to six-year-olds on the streets,” Ms. Abudu said.

    She said the government did not have the resources to repatriate the child beggars presently on the streets but would encourage the public to shun them and desist from giving them cash to help force them out of the streets.

    “If you don’t give them today and I don’t give them tomorrow, next week they will be forced to leave the streets and move away,” the minister added.

    But in an interview with Citi News, the Executive Director for Child Rights International, Bright Appiah added that there must be a policy to make begging on the streets uncomfortable.

    “There are other factors that are more dominant than even the resources that people give. If we are able to do that then it will add to the call that this government has made in respect to people not giving monies to beggars on the street.

    “The major issue that we have to deal with has to do with making the environment uncomfortable for people to think that they can be on the street to beg.”

  • Gender Ministry holds stakeholders’ workshop on LEAP payment processes, performance

    To guarantee a seamless delivery of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash grant to beneficiary households in Ghana, the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection has organized workshops on the LEAP payment process and performance for key stakeholders in Volta and Eastern Regions.

    The LEAP programme disburses cash grants to beneficiary households to reduce poverty by smoothening consumption and promoting human capital development.

    The workshop ensured stakeholders at the national, regional, and district levels have an enhanced understanding of the Programmes Payment processes, objectives, guiding principles, and goals.

    It was also to strengthen the capacity of District Social Welfare Officers (DSWOs) who are the Focal Persons on LEAP.

    As part of the LEAP payment process, the LEAP Management Secretariat will employ zoning strategies to engage sub-national level structures tasked with implementing LEAP at various levels.

    It is expected that stakeholders in the LEAP Payment process will understand payment targets, measure the performance of the payment delivery chain and obtain inputs to renew the payment contract.

    Participants from the Greater Accra, Oti, Volta, Western, Central, and Eastern Regions were drawn from the Ministry of Finance, Controller and Accountant Generals Department, and the Department of Social Welfare.

    The rests are representatives from Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS) and Participating Financial Institutions (PFI).

    The World Bank funded the stakeholders’ engagement workshop under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP).

    Source: Ghanaweb

  • Social protection: Mahama’s unsung achievements

    Very often, communicators of the ruling New Patriotic Party shout on rooftops asking the NDC to name just one social intervention policy under the Mahama-led Administration. Whenever I hear this, I shake my head and laugh. I am going to provide proof of the intensive work he did and its massive impact on the poor and vulnerable.

    President Mahama remains committed to implementing policies aimed at cushioning the poor and vulnerable. Consequently, existing social intervention schemes were expanded to rope in more beneficiaries under his Government.

    New interventions were also introduced. They include EBAN Card, a welfare card for the elderly. It was launched to offer priority access to public services such as health, transport, banking services, etc.

    A national rollout exercise registered over 25,000 elderly persons and about 6,000 beneficiaries were captured on the enhanced Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP).

    The LEAP programme saw exponential expansion from 1,654 beneficiary households in 2008 to 116,000 households. This represented an increase óf 6,913.3% and translated into 522,000 beneficiaries. It covered 4,072 communities in 188 districts.

    A new category of beneficiaries known as LEAP 1000 was added to the programme. It comprised extremely poor pregnant women and children under 5 years. This was aimed at addressing the incidence of malnutrition and stunting, especially in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. 6,200 were registered under the scheme and received cash transfers.

    Following the twin flood and fire disaster of June 3, 2015, an emergency LEAP intervention programme was implemented under which GHC3.9 million was disbursed to support households affected by the disaster.

    Furthermore, the Ghana National Household Register was set up to create a database of extremely poor people. The objective was to compile a database using scientific and accurate means to facilitate the planning and rollout of social intervention programmes.

    Reference: NDC Green Book

     

     

    Source: Ghanaweb

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