200,000 to benefit from LEAP this year
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is to enrol 200,000 households on the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme by the end of the year.
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So far, 90,745 household beneficiaries from 144 districts have been enrolled onto the programme since it was started in 2008 with 1,645 households from 21 districts.
A Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mr John Alexander Ackon, who announced this in Sunyani, said: “Our target is to reach out to 150,000 households by the middle of the year and 200,000 households throughout the country by the end of the year.”
He was addressing participants at a day’s sensitisation workshop for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) on the LEAP programme in Sunyani last Tuesday.
It was attended by 52 selected MMDCEs from the Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions.
LEAP
LEAP is a cash transfer programme for the poorest households in the country.
It is to assist such families with basic needs, including food, and to improve on the health and education status of their children.
Implementation
Addressing the participants, Mr Ackon explained that since the programme was gradually expanding to every district in the country, there was the need for the MMDCEs to understand the concept to ensure its effective implementation in their respective areas.
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“It is your responsibility to understand all the principles underlying the implementation of the policy to enable you to collaborate effectively to leap people out of their poverty,” he indicated.
Mr Ackon said staff of the Department of Social Welfare had been trained to implement the programme in the country and called on the MMDCEs to offer those officers the needed support.
Programme
The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Justice Samuel Adjei, explained that the LEAP programme started in the Techiman municipality with four communities where 153 households benefitted.
He said as of January 31, this year, the programme had expanded to 13 municipal and district assemblies where 7,534 households from 182 communities were benefitting.
The Chief Director at the ministry, Mrs Comfort Asare, said the involvement of the MMDCEs in the programme was crucial and therefore, urged them to strive to learn more about the LEAP.
“You are required to know the project cycle, institutional arrangements, targeting processes and payment procedures of the programme,” she stated.