Focus on poor districts:ISODEC urges govt
A policy analyst at the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Mr Leonard Shang-Quartey, has said the government must focus social intervention programmes aimed at reducing poverty in Ghana on regions identified to be the most poor.
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“One challenge for the government has been how to accurately target the poor,” he said in an interview.
Mr Shang-Quartey, who was sharing his perspectives on how poverty can be reduced in Ghana, based on the findings of the second poverty mapping report launched by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), said the report provided a broader perspective on the poverty levels in Ghana and as such government must use it for effective planning.
“The issue of where the poor are located has always being a difficulty when planning, but with this report, government can correctly target and coordinate support for these districts.
“This report provides a sharper lens of the level of poverty in Ghana. This is because it presents an overview of the poverty headcount, depth and inequality for all the 216 and 29 sub-districts we have in the country. So when you take a particular district, you know exactly where to locate the poor people and direct these programmes at them,” he said.
The report, which is the second by the GSS, indicated that there was still a high incidence of poverty in the northwestern part of the country. Though the incidence of poverty in the southwestern part is very low, there are, however, a few districts with relatively high incidence. Among all the districts of Ghana, East Gonja in the Northern Region stood out as the district with majority of poor persons.
Districts in southern Ghana, on the other hand, show a low concentration of poor persons. There are few districts with high number of poor persons, but these could not be compared to what pertained in districts in the northern part of Ghana.
The poverty indicators in the current report have been computed based on data from the 2010 Population and Housing Census (2010 PHC) and the 2012/2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS6).
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Social intervention programmes in Ghana
Ghana is currently implementing a number of social intervention programmes aimed at reducing poverty and bridging the inequality gap in the country.
There are programmes like the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme (LEAP), the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Capitation Grant, Free School Uniform and Free Exercise Books.
LEAP is a social cash transfer programme which provides cash and health insurance to extremely poor households across Ghana to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development.
Regional poverty rankings
In the Western Region, Wassa Amanfi Central had the highest poverty headcount in the region with 51.9 per cent. The poverty incidence in the Central Region was also highest in the Ekumfi District with 48.4 per cent.
In the Greater Accra Region, the highest level of poverty was observed in the Shai Osudoku District with 55.1 per cent followed by the Ningo Prampram District with 31.2 per cent.
The report also showed that Adaklu in the Volta Region recorded the highest level of poverty with 89.1 per cent.
“In the Eastern Region, Kwahu Afram Plains South District, Kwahu South and Upper Manya districts top the poverty charts at 59.7 per cent, 48.0 per cent and 43.6 per cent. In the Ashanti Region also, Ashanti Sekyere Afram Plains North leads the poverty chart at 59.6 per cent followed by Ejura Sekye Dumasi with 47.0 per cent and Ahafo Ano North with 46.4 per cent,” it added.
Kintampo South in the Brong Ahafo Region recorded the highest incidence of poverty with 78.3 per cent.
The report showed that the Northern Region had the third largest poverty headcount in Ghana, explaining that East Gonja District had the highest poverty incidence with 84.2 per cent followed by Bole with 79.4 per cent.
“For the Upper East Region, Builsa South District is the highest on the list at 84.4 per cent followed by Bawku West with 68.1 per cent, Bongo at 67.4 per cent and Nabdam at 63.0 per cent. Kassena Nankana West District had the lowest incidence at 13.1 per cent,” it said.
In the Upper West Region, poverty incidence was highest in Wa West with 92.4 per cent, followed by Wa East with 83.8 per cent and Sissala West with 81.2 per cent.