The Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Daniel Botwe, has disclosed that the government is set to train and provide start up grants to 30,000 beneficiaries to establish community level enterprises.
The Minister made this known yesterday in a speech read on his behalf in Accra yesterday at the close out of the first phase of the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP) under the theme, “Leveraging digitisation for effective Social Protection delivery-The Ghana Case Study”.
The GPSNP is an US$80.5m project financed by the World Bank and Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)/UK Aid (US$20.5m) and implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development.
The first phase of the project was implemented over a four year period (2018-2022) to improve the productivity of the poor, strengthen safety net systems and enhance the effectiveness of the flagship social protection programmes of the Government of Ghana.
According to Mr. Dan Botwe, all the activities to be taken by his outfit are from their allocation of USD47m under the new phase two.
Others include the provision of 60 feeder roads, 80 small earth dams, 199 hectares of new plantations which would provide and introduce PI and LIPW in 20 selected urban areas.
“We will also provide short-term employment to 60,000 beneficiaries and also introduce Productive Inclusion (PI) and Labour-Intensive Public Works in twenty selected urban areas in the 100 participating MMDAs”
The programme, the Minister said, will provide opportunity to provide and improve visibility of the outcomes and results of the GPSNP on the livelihoods of project beneficiaries and on the overall strengthening of the social safety net systems in Ghana.
He again emphasised that the ministry, would continue to discharge its responsibilities in accordance with the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936).The Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Lariba Zuweira, on her part, noted that it was necessary for government to leverage on digitisation for effective social protection delivery.
“Digitalising social protection delivery has the potential to reduce fragmented, isolated social protection interventions, thereby linking beneficiaries of social protection intervention to other services and support”, she said.
Mrs Zuweira noted that her Ministry, with support from the World Bank, had already taken the lead in line with the theme of the event by implementing a digital grievance redress mechanism, the Single Window Citizens Engagement Service (SWCES).
Moreover, she emphasized that some of the achievements of social protection systems include the coverage of 345,021 beneficiary households under the LEAP programme among others.
The World Bank Country Director, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr Pierre Laporte added that the World Bank will further support government with additional financing to the GPSNP 2, which will aid in increasing Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) benefits and coverage, as well as expanding to reach other, important social protection programs.
These efforts, he said, “are key to aid us in making gains in poverty alleviation and economic growth, despite setbacks in the agenda, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mr. Laporte mentioned that the digitalisation of the GPSNP was key in making gains in poverty alleviation and economic growth despite the setbacks as a result of COVID-19.
