Accra, Dec. 4, GNA- Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, has called for a national social protection dialogue to identify sustainable financing mechanisms to enable Ghana to improve on its social protection agenda.
Such dialogue, she said, would let the country generate commitments as well as explore sustainable public-private partnerships to vigorously pursue universal social protection for the vulnerable so that no one was left behind.
Madam Osei-Opare made the call when she delivered a paper on the topic, “Social Protection in Ghana: Are We on Track”, at the 2021 University of Ghana Alumni Lecture held at the Great Hall of the University on Wednesday.
The lecture, attended by Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, examined the prevailing social protection interventions for mitigating poverty and vulnerabilities and made proposals to enhance their effectiveness in the future.
The Chief of Staff noted that Ghana’s Social Protection story had been an evolving system, which had steadily increased its scale and functionalities over time.
To her, Ghana had had its fair share of the poverty syndrome that has affected the aged, children, women and People With Disability (PWD), identified as the most vulnerable, resulting in the introduction of numerous social protection policies and initiatives towards mitigating the hardships.
She said it was evident that Ghana had been bold in developing several relevant social protection programmes with clear benefits for the poor and vulnerable in society.
Even though Ghana’s commitment towards fighting poverty is obvious in the direct budgetary interventions that are made for programmes that address inequality, challenges such as budgetary constraints, targeting inaccuracies, as well as poor coordination mechanisms that exist at all levels must be addressed, she said.
Madam Osei-Opare, who focused her paper on social assistance interventions with special emphasis on selected government flagship programmes, noted that the provision of social protection had increasingly and systematically taken a national character, with improved political commitments and support for the delivery of social protection.
She mentioned the Free Senior High School policy, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the School Feeding Programme, Capitation Grants for schools at the basic levels, the Disability Fund, the Free Maternal Healthcare programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty ( LEAP) programme, Cash Transfers, Fertilizer subsidies for farmers, Youth Employment initiatives, among others, that have served as an important social protection network in Ghana.
For instance, the school feeding programme, which began with 10 pilot schools drawn from the various regions, and expanded to 200 schools, covering 69,000 pupils in 138 districts by August 2006, currently reaches 3.4 million pupils in 10,560 schools nationwide.
And in 2018, the programme achieved a 30 per cent expansion of coverage, both in schools and pupils) and also increased feeding grant from eighty pesewas (GHC 0.80) to one cedi (GHC 1.00) per pupil per day.
The 2022 National Budget proposed to increase coverage from the current 3.4 million to 4 million pupils, which would take coverage of the programme from the current 71.8 per cent to 84.5 per cent.
This, Madam Osei-Opare, said was a positive move towards increasing equity across the country in the delivery of the School Feeding Programme, which would move the policy steadily towards universal coverage.
“A universal coverage would certainly reduce the need for intense lobbying by various community actors to get their schools captured under the school feeding programme,” she noted
The plan of the government, she stated, was to incrementally expand the School feeding programme to cover all children enrolled in public schools from Kindergarten to primary six.
The 2020/2021 academic year enrolment data shows that there are about 4.73 million pupils nationwide.
Touching on the flagship Free Senior High School Policy implemented by the Akufo-Addo administration in 2017/2018 academic, the Chief of Staff said the programme had built on the success of the Capitation Grant instituted in the Kufuor era.
She noted that the Free SHS had enhanced access, ensured equity and increased equality in the country’s secondary education, enrolling over 1.4 million students between 2018 and 2020, a 58 per cent increase compared to the 2014 to 2016 enrolment figure of 881,600.
“This substantial increase is due to the removal of cost barriers, expansion of infrastructure and a more creative and equitable enrolment approach,” she said, adding that the Free SHS Policy demonstrated the commitment of the Government to “leave no one behind.”
Madam Osei-Opare reiterated that the fundamental understanding of government is that the most effective and surest way of tackling poverty is to break the chain that passes it from one generation to the next through education.
She assured that Government was pursuing a strong social protection agenda for the vulnerable that would increasingly guarantee provision for good healthcare, education, poverty alleviation and support for persons with disabilities.
With too many competing demands for limited resources in a developing country like Ghana, the Chief of Staff pointed out that funding social protection required a strong political will and the sustainability of such a demanding programme required the financial commitment of the nation as a guarantee for continuity.
“As a nation, we need a platform to engage and deepen our understanding as well as an appreciation of the linkages between social protection measures, maintaining peace and security and economic growth.
“The ability of a nation to rollout social protection programme that rope in most of the affected persons and households accelerates poverty reduction not only at the household level but the entire country.” She stated.
Madam Osei-Opare emphasized that to make a sustained impact, there must be increased budgetary provision, the timeous release of funds, and a long term financial commitment plan for social protection programmes.
She stressed that innovative financing mechanisms for social protection were needed to sustain the momentum that had been generated, especially since 2017, insisting that serious consideration should be given to complementary funding from the decentralized structures of government.
“It is my hope that the Ministry of Finance would explore innovative financing pathways to sustain social protection in Ghana,” she said.
The Chief of Staff urged the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to increase the pace of completing the Social Protection Bill for it to be passed into law.
That, she said, would contribute to securing predictable and adequate benefits, strengthen institutional capacities and promote transparency and accountability in the social protection agenda, adding, “Social protection is expensive but the reverse is even costlier.”
Globally, social protection interventions have gained recognition for their essential role in achieving sustainable development, promoting social justice and advancing human rights.
Social protection considerations have, therefore, become an integral aspect of global development strategies aimed at reducing poverty and vulnerability across the populace as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ghana has since independence had its fair share of poverty syndrome, resulting in the mainstreaming of numerous social protection initiatives towards mitigating the challenges posed by poverty.
The poverty outlook in Ghana indicates that the aged, children, youth, women and people with disabilities are specially identified among the most vulnerable in the country.
The Free SHS policy, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), School Feeding Program, Capitation Grants for schools at the basic levels, Disability Fund, Free Maternal Healthcare, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty ( LEAP), Cash Transfers, Fertiliser subsidies for farmers, Youth Employment initiatives, among others, had served as an important social protection ecosystem in Ghana.
GNA