Aggressive actions vital to close rich-poor gap

Economists and social scientists have come up with a number of suggestions to cure the unfair distribution of wealth in any given society.

These include making interventions targeted at the poorest to help lift them out of the poverty bracket.

In Ghana, a number of interventions have been initiated.

The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, introduced in 2008, is a direct response to help the extreme poor get out of that bracket by giving them cash which they can use to support their livelihoods.

These interventions, among others, are very laudable and often proposed by development partners or with their buy-in.

What the country has not done well over the years is their proper implementation.

Often, the good intentions of the policies and interventions get dissolved in loopholes created through poor supervision, rush implementation and politicisation of the programmes.

As the world marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (read story on page 16), the Daily Graphic believes that until programmes and initiatives meant to grow the economy and lift people out of poverty are well thought through and tacitly implemented without fear or favour, little can be achieved in the fight against poverty.

According to the seventh Ghana Living Standards Survey report put together by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), about 6.8 million Ghanaians, representing 23.4 per cent of the population, cannot afford to spend more than GH¢5.3, the equivalent of $1, a day,

The GSS report further states that the Ghanaian economy benefited from the production of crude oil in commercial quantities and strong economic growth in 2011, leading to the achievement of a lower middle-income status for the country. Economic growth decreased thereafter to a low of 3.7 per cent in 2016 but increased in 2017.

However, the service is yet to measure whether the growth had benefitted all sections of society, including the poorest.

Several social intervention programmes, including the LEAP, the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and now the free senior high school, started in 2017, have been implemented with the aim of alleviating poverty among the vulnerable population.

In addition to the poverty levels, there is also rising levels of inequalities, where the gap between those who are rich in society and those at the bottom of the income pyramid is widening.

The fight against poverty is a fight against stereotypes, business-as-usual and apathy.

It is an aggressive fight that should be approached with all the seriousness it deserves.

The Daily Graphic calls for accountability from duty bearers at all times on how they utilise the resources entrusted to them.

The paper believes that fighting poverty requires doing simple things one at a time, learning from them and scaling them up in cases where the results are positive and up to expectation.

It is also a fight against corruption at all levels of society. Every little resource should be accounted for and not dissipated.

The Daily Graphic believes that the fight against poverty can be won within one generation, but this requires sacrifices and the commitment of all to be diligent, earn incomes genuinely and be ready to assist others to break the cycle of poverty in their personal lives.