‘Economic instability eroding gains in poverty reduction’
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has called for the holistic implementation of the objectives of the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) for the development of the country.
A member of the commission, Dr Grace Bediako, made the call at a technical engagement and sensitisation conference to herald the launch of the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) in Accra yesterday.
The GSGDA, which is a medium-term policy framework developed for 2014 to 2017, takes into consideration the need to promote basic living standards among other development efforts.
Review conference
The conference was also to review the current state of Social Protection (SP) in the country, provide an overview of the GNHR as a tool in SP programmes and also review the importance of appropriately targeting beneficiaries and the dangers associated with inappropriate targetting.
Dr Bediako noted that the recent macro-economic instability in the country was putting at risk the gains made in poverty reduction.
She said the country made significant progress during the last decade, which propelled Ghana to its current middle-income status and helped to halve extreme poverty from 36.5 per cent to 18.2 per cent.
“It seems that recent macroeconomic challenges disproportionately will continue to more adversely affect the poor,” she said.
She, therefore, said it was critical not only for interventions to be maximised with the dwindling resources but also SP initiatives such as the GNHR be better targeted at the most disadvantaged.
Liberia to duplicate
The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection of Liberia, Ms Julia Dancan-Cassell, in a statement, commended Ghana for being the first in the sub-region and beyond to develop a national household registry for the poor and vulnerable in society.
She said Liberia was ready to understudy Ghana to help it implement a similar project.
According to her, the devastating effect of the Ebola outbreak in her country had left Liberia with a lot of vulnerable people, especially women and children who needed to be remitted with cash, as well as given other social interventions.
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection of Ghana, Nana Oye Lithur, in a welcome address, said Ghana had made history as the first African country south of the Sahara to halve extreme poverty ahead of the Millennium Development Goal One target.
She said the GNHR added to the policy, legal and institutional structure the government was putting in place to create an effective social protection regime in the country.