Labour programme halts seasonal migration
At the end of every farming season, with the long dry season imminent, many young adults of the three regions in the north set off to the south to look for livelihoods.
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This year, at Sekoti in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, most of them are staying at home and not embarking on the seasonal migration to the south. They are participating in the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) programme in their community.
The Government of Ghana is implementing the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) programme, a social protection scheme under the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) in 49 beneficiary districts in Ghana. The objective of the LIPW programme is to provide access to employment and income-earning opportunities for the rural poor during the agricultural-off season.
The implementation of the LIPWs involves the identification of suitably sized feeder roads, small dams and dugouts and the establishment of woodlots and fruit tree plantations, as well as the use of manual construction methods to execute the works to generate more employment in order to transfer a large proportion of the investment as supplementary income into the pockets of the rural poor.
The Nabdam District Assembly in the Upper East Region of Ghana is one of the beneficiary (GSOP) districts implementing the LIPW programme. In October this year, the Sekoti community was selected to participate in the district’s (LIPW) programme. The Paramount Chief of the Sekoti Traditional Area, Naba Segri Bewong, and his people released land for the establishment of a 10-hectare mixed tree (fruits and woodlot) plantation for the community under the climate change category of the LIPW programme.
Engaging 363 community members since November 2013, the Sekoti climate change LIPW subproject is expected to provide 18,966 persons, days of employment assuring the community members of temporary employment throughout the agricultural off season, and earnings of at least GH¢313.50 per participant by the end of season.
Beneficiaries are being engaged during this dry season to carry out a number of activities including weeding, fencing, digging holes for planting, planting of seedlings, watering of seedlings, constructing fire belts and carrying out other general agronomic activities for a nominal wage of GH¢6.00 per a six-hour day of work.
A survey of the 363 participants has revealed that nearly 80 per cent of them temporarily migrated south over the agricultural off season in the past but are not doing so this year because of the assurance of employment over the period.
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The primary benefits of the LIPW programme as a social protection intervention is the transfer of cash to the rural poor to smoothen household consumption and avert depletion of household assets.
However, since 2012, the LIPW programmes have also chalked up other clear benefits including restoring the productive capacities of socio-economic infrastructure such as roads, small dams and dugouts at the community level, enabling households to register on the NHIS and maintain children in school, improve social cohesion and stop the seasonal migration to southern Ghana during the agricultural-off season if implementation commences soon after the main cropping season.