Nana Oye Outlines her vision
The newly sworn-in Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has stated that the ministry will create a data base of pro-poor people in the country who qualify for social interventions.
The long-term goal of this social intervention programme is to reduce poverty and empower the poor to be able to wean themselves from government support and work on their own.
In an interview on her vision for the ministry, Nana Oye said through that activity, a base-line would be created where the government would be measured after four years to assess its achievement.
The reconstituted ministry now consists of the old Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), the Department of Social Welfare and the Directorate of Social Protection, which was under the Ministry of Employment.
As of 10 a.m. on her first day at work on Tuesday, the minister had held three meetings with officials in the ministry. She said the initiative was in conformity with the ministry’s mandate to promote gender equality and coordinate and implement government’s social intervention programmes for the poor and most vulnerable in society.
The social intervention programmes include the Local Enterprises & Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Youth Enterprises and Skills Development Centre (YESDEC), School Feeding Programme, Block Farm and free uniforms for schoolchildren.
She added that when established, the data-base—which would be derived from the Multiple Cluster Survey 2012 and the 2010 Population and Housing Census—would help the government know the strategic needs of the vulnerable in society.
Nana Oye who has conducted extensive research, monitored, evaluated and created innovative low cost programmes— including access to justice programmes—said the mandate of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) would also coordinate, among others, issues on men, women and children in the country.
A key activity, she said, would be involving men in gender issues by targeting them in related programmes, adding that it is vital that the ministry is re-aligned to promote gender equality and mainstream gender activities.
She said in the next three years, the ministry would go through a harmonisation process in terms of policy and legal framework that would help promote its mandate.
According to her, the harmonisation process is going to be in three levels and will include an institutional and legal framework and the re-aligning of programmes aimed at delivering the mandate of the ministry. She added that harmonising the social intervention programmes would help enhance efficiency and scale down resources.
Critical services and programmes that would be run would be the establishment of a social protection department and gender department. The children’s department will be maintained.
She said social protection programmes had worked in Brazil and Mexico and was currently being run in South Africa which has one of the best social protection programmes in Africa.
She said Ghana had done a lot in the area of social protection which needed to be scaled-up to benefit the poor, adding that a strategic plan would be drawn to finance the harmonisation programme.
One other key intervention that she will like to leave as a legacy is to ensure that market women will be given medical attention at their places of work and early childhood centres, established in the market for their children.
She said due to the peculiar nature of the challenges faced by market women, especially sitting in the sun for hours, there was the need for medical screening to be conducted for them periodically so that they could maintain good health.
Story by Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
