Accra, Jan 15, GNA - The IMANI Centre for Policy and Education says it would showcase experiences of beneficiaries with social protection programmes for poverty reduction in an audio-visual documentary by January ending and make recommendations for improvement.
The documentary scheduled on January 30 would elucidate alternative ways by which Ghana’s social protection programmes could be positioned to further support market-based incentives for poverty reduction.
Mr Franklin Cudjoe, the President and Chief Executive of Officer of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, who disclosed this to the GNA in a statement on Wednesday said there would also be an exhibition of artworks that captured the themes of poverty in Ghana.
Social protection programmes are touted as tools that help reduce poverty and inequality, which IMANI added that, beyond protecting families from falling into or remaining in poverty, “they appear to contribute to the growth of the economy through raising labour productivity and social stability.”
Ghana has over the years implemented different forms of social protection programmes such as Programme of Action to Mitigate Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) in 1988 and the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) in 1990.
Mr Cudjoe noted that while PAMSCAD and PAF contributed to improvement in the livelihoods of beneficiaries, “proper targeting of beneficiaries was reported to have been a major challenge.”
He also said to improve the programme design for social intervention, the Government in 2008 introduced the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
Part of the objectives was to increase consumption and access to social services and opportunities for extremely poor and vulnerable people.
Statistics show that since the implementation of LEAP, the number of household beneficiaries have risen from 1,645 households in 2008 to cover 332,200 households in 2019.
Similarly, government’s expenditure on it has ballooned from GH¢500,000.00 in 2008 to GH¢200,746,481 in 2020.
Mr Cudjoe said, although, the investments were expected to translate to reduced poverty levels, the programme recorded mixed results.
“It is necessary, therefore, that further assessments are conducted on the benefits of the programme on the beneficiaries – presenting the views of beneficiaries beyond the desk assessments,” he added.
He said it was against that background that IMANI through its Atlas Network’s supported Joining Up to Minimise Poverty (JUMP) project, leveraged audio-visual tools to collect information about the programme and how it transformed lives of beneficiaries.
GNA
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