LEAP and ‘Bolsa Familia’: One strategy, different results

On Monday, February 3, 2014, the Daily Graphic reported that Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) beneficiaries wanted their allowances  increased because the current amount ranging from GH¢ 45.00 to GH¢ 90.00 per beneficiary family for two months was not sufficient.

Another request made to the minister was for the National Health Insurance schemes in the Western Region to halt the deductions  supposedly meant for health insurance premiums. So to what extent were the requests of these underprivileged people justified? Why the recurrent delay in releasing funds to pay these people?   

Background to LEAP in Ghana  

In 2000 and 2007, the governments of Brazil and Ghana respectively initiated ‘bolsa familia’ and the LEAP as bold social intervention strategies to help reduce extreme poverty in both countries. Both programmes aimed at reducing poverty and inequality and promoting human capital investment among poor families through direct cash transfers to poor families and incentives to invest in human capital.

In both countries, clear criteria were established. Beneficiary families were required to enrol and keep all school-age children in school; register all members of the family with the National Health Insurance Scheme; register newly-born children (0-18 months old) at the registry of Births and Deaths, take them to post-natal clinics and enrol them in the Expanded Immunisation Programme as well as prevent all children in the family from child trafficking and from being involved in any of the worst forms of child labour. 

Ghana designed its National Social Protection Strategy focusing on LEAP, which is based on the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II) of the country. The programme started with a five-year pilot experience in which the main components were conditional and unconditional cash transfers to orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC), the elderly above 65 years old and people with disabilities. 

Social intervention joke

Even though Ghana targets to achieve over 94 per cent  of its goal by enrolling 150,000 families against the 160,000 target beneficiaries by the end of 2014, the programme has so far benefited only about 74,000 people. Comparing the achievements with a similar programme by the Republic of Brazil, I think we  are joking as a country in our social intervention drive looking at the successes chalked up by Brazil. 

The development of the LEAP by the then government was inspired by the Brazilian experience; initiated and championed by former Brazilian President- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2000. The Brazilian Programme, known as ‘bolsa familia’, has so far benefited over 13.8 million people with the initial beneficiary families of 3.6 million. This means that bolsa familia covered about a quarter of Brazil's population of 199 million at the end of 2013. Ghana, but after over seven  years of implementation, now targets an enrolment of 150,000 by the end of 2014. 

Aside the number of beneficiaries enrolled on the programme, in Brazil, a beneficiary family receives about $84.00 USD dollars a month, while in Ghana the highest amount received by a beneficiary family is about $35.00 US dollars for two months. So how can these beneficiary families make good use of this meagre amount when inflation is 14 per cent  in Ghana and utilities and fuel prices have gone up considerably within the past couple of weeks with the consequent increase of about 20 per cent in transport fares? 

In view of this, the request for the increase in the allowances by the extremely poor families covered by the LEAP is more than justifiable and I have no doubt that the minister, who is an acclaimed human rights and social protection advocate, will not hesitate to heed their call. People who have also not done their work which has led to the double payment by these beneficiaries to the Health Insurance Schemes should not be allowed to go free--any costs associated with the reimbursement should be borne by these public servants who failed to do their job.  

Again, there is regular payment in the case of the Brazilian programme while in Ghana payments are not regular. Payments in Ghana were delayed for a couple of months leaving beneficiaries with no clue of when payment would be effected. I will not like to guess the reasons for the delay but I am tempted to attribute the delay to the Single Spine Salary Pay Policy which the Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, blamed for the delay in most of statutory payments including the GETFund, Health Insurance Fund and the District Assembly Common Fund. 

Lack of financial commitment

Why is it that our development partners have not made any financial commitment to this programme unlike the case of Brazil which was heavily supported with $572.20 US dollars in 2004 to help the government of Brazil put together a functioning mechanism for the take off of the programme? Does this suggest a lack of confidence in Ghana’s programme? 

The achievements of the programme, among others, in Brazil are the decline of extreme poverty of about 36 million people since the implementation of the programme in 2000. The proportion of Brazilians living in extreme poverty (defined as less than 70 reais a month) declined from 8.8 per cent  to 3.6 per cent  between 2002 and 2012 according to a report compiled by independent monitors. 

If LEAP is to achieve its goal for which it was initiated in 2007, there is the need for a regular source of income for the programme as is the case with the defunct Ghana Youth Enterprise Development Agency (GYEDA) where a percentage of the communication tax revenue is dedicated to funding programmes under the agency. There is also the need for payment to be regular and the amount of money received, doubled to ameliorate the effects of the increase in utilities, fuel and transport cost on the beneficiaries. Government must also work to make the programme attractive to development partners to help attract financial support to it. 

The writer is an MSc Student in Development Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology( KNUST) 

Email: anyinarus@yahoo.co.uk

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