A new research report has supported the relevance of the various social protection programmes being implemented by the Government for the citizenry, and called for increased budgetary allocation.
The five social protection programmes, namely, the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Capitation Grants (CP), Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which were identified as having the potential to reduce poverty among Ghanaians.
However, all the programmes said they lacked the needed resources to function properly.
The findings of the research that was commissioned by the Ghana Civil Society Partnership on Social Accountability for Social Protection, and shared at an event in Accra, indicated that inadequate budgetary allocation had been a major factor hampering the smooth implementation of the social protection programmes with the country spending less than one percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on such programmes.
“It is suggested that in line with global benchmarks and commitments, the Government should target a gradual increase of social protection spending up to 4.5 per cent of Ghana’s GDP by 2025”, the report presented by Dr Isaac Nyarko Kwakye, a consultant of Send Ghana, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) stated.
Dr Kwakye presented the findings at the “Social Accountability and Economic Justice Clearing Platform” forum organised by the Penplusbytes, a not-for profit organisation in Accra as part of its implementation of a two-year Health, Education, Resource Equity (‘HERE) and Now’ project.
The HERE and Now project seek to equip citizens with usable information via the #Shortchanged mobile app mashed up with social media to promote their purposeful participation in demanding accountability and responsiveness from decision makers for effective delivery of national public services delivery.
Dr Kwakye said the CSOs partnership research, also identified a huge variation between approved budget allocations and disbursements, an evidence that social protection budget planning and execution was a challenge.
“All respondents, including government personnel, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries from selected districts on the various programmes complained about the delays and irregular release of fund.
“As a matter of priority, it is important that the ministry of finance and the respective sector ministries work to improve social protection budget execution, by adopting measures to ensure timely release of funds, and payment to beneficiaries and persons who provide services like feeding programmes caterers. Funds must be released before the academic year begins,” Dr Kwaye said.
Source: GNA
| Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Featured Video
