1. 1 SYMPOSIUM ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL PROTECTION TOPIC: THE GHANA LIVELIHOOD EMPOWERMENT AGAINST POVERTY (LEAP) PROGRAMME, A Case Study of Social Protection intervention VENUE:- NIAMEY, NIGER DATE:- 19 th & 20 th September, 2014 Presenter: HON. JOHN ALEXANDER ACKON (DEPUTY MINISTER - Gender, Children & Social Protection)

2. Our Target Groups 2 Children (38%) Women (51%) Men (48.7%) People with disabilities (3%) Elderly (6.7%) Youth (20%)

3. 3 OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION  Definition and Background of Social Protection:  The LEAP Programme  Implementation and coverage  Targeting Process  Payment arrangements  Achievements  Challenges  Way forward  Conclusion

4. 4 Back Definition of Social Protection Ghana’s Social Protection Strategy defines social protection as : “ a set of transfers and services that help individuals and households confront risk and adversity (including emergencies), and ensure a minimum standard of dignity and well-being throughout the life-cycle. ” The definition also adds that, a concept of “social protection for children which focuses on the objectives of systematically protecting and ensuring the rights of all children and women, achieving gender equality, and reducing child poverty.

5. 5 SOME SOCIAL PROTECTION INTERVENTIONS IN GHANA;  Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme  Labour Intensive Public Works  The Exempt Category under the National Health Insurance Scheme  Pro-Poor interventions for poor peasant farmers’ including Block Farming  Free School Uniform and Exercise books for Public Basic Schools  School Feeding Programme  Education Capitation Grant  Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP)  Ghana Youth Employment and Enterprise Development Programme

6. 6 BACKGROUND OF LEAP  Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme  Labour Intensive Public Works  The Exempt Category under the National Health Insurance Scheme  Pro-Poor interventions for poor peasant farmers’ including Block Farming  Free School Uniform and Exercise books for Public Basic Schools  School Feeding Programme  Education Capitation Grant  Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP)  Ghana Youth Employment and Enterprise Development Programme

7. 7 BACKGROUND OF LEAP (cont’d) The LEAP Programme provides cash transfers to: Empower extremely poor households Help them provide for their basic needs Enable them to LEAP out of extreme poverty LEAP targets are the following; i.Orphans and Vulnerable Children and their caregivers ii.The elderly poor who are 65 years + iii.Persons with severe disabilities without productive capacity

8. 8 OBJECTIVES OF LEAP Broad Objective of LEAP The broad objective of the LEAP Program is to reduce poverty by increasing consumption and promoting access to services and opportunities among the extreme poor and vulnerable. Specific Objectives i.To improve basic household consumption and nutrition among children below 2 years ii.To increase access to health care services among children below 5 years iii.To increase basic school enrollment, attendance and retention of beneficiary children iv.To facilitate access to complementary services (such as welfare, livelihoods

9. 9 Implementation and Coverage The LEAP programme is being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and managed the Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection (MoGCSP) The programme commenced in 2008 with 1,654 household beneficiaries in 21 selected districts and currently covers 99 districts nation-wide with the total number of household beneficiaries standing at over 72,000 (June, 2014)

10. Governance Structure LEAP programme is a community driven programme because of the participation at the grass root level. The Community LEAP implementation committee (CLIC ) is the grass root structure that plays an active role in the implementation of the cash grant programme. The CLIC assist in data collection and the identification of potential beneficiary house holds (HH) in the community. The CLIC also assist in the mobilisation of beneficiaries at the time of cash payments. Furthermore the CLIC helps in the monitoring on the usage of the cash grant etc. 10

11. 11 TARGETING

12. 12 FUNDING OF LEAP

13. 13 PAYMENT PROCESSES

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15. 15 LEAP MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

16. 16 LEAP MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

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18. 18 ACHIEVEMENTS  Number of beneficiary households has increased from initial 1654 in twenty-one( 21 ) districts in 2008 to 72,780 beneficiary households in ninety- nine ( 99 ) districts as at June, 2014  Tripling of household grant since July, 2012 from an average of GH12.00 to GH36.00  LEAP grants arrears of beneficiaries have all been cleared to date  Every GH¢1 to GH¢2.5 by ‘local multiplier’ effect  Improvement in household consumption of beneficiaries  Increase school attendance - Basic & Secondary

19. 19 ACHIEVEMENTS (cont’d)  Over 90% LEAP beneficiary households have been enrolled onto NHIS and are accessing health care.  Piloted electronic payments in 9 pilot districts  Upgrading of the Management Information System (MIS)  A baseline and mid term impact evaluation of the programme was conducted by the North Carolina University(USA)/ISSER - UG  Development & distribution of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials  Implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework

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21. 21 CHALLENGE  Weak coordination of LEAP with other complementary services to facilitate graduation and exit like;  School Feeding Program  Capitation Grant  Distribution of School Uniforms  Distribution of School textbooks and exercise books  Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW)  MASLOC  LESDEP  GYEEDA etc.

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23. 23 THE WAY FORWARD  Expansion and targeting of 50,000 additional households on the programme by 2015  Up scale and roll out Electronic payment system  Pilot Case Management module devloped  Develop and pilot of Electronic Data Collection tools in progress  Undertake Independent Monitoring Checks (IMC)  To strengthen systems using independent verifier

24. 24 THE WAY FORWARD (cont’d) Introduction of LEAP 1,000 (for pregnant mothers and children <1year in 10 selected districts of the Northern and Upper East regions) The establishment of the National Targeting System under the MoGCSP to create the Ghana National Household Registry (Single Registry Database) from which LEAP and other Social Protection programmes can select their target beneficiaries Implement the process of graduating beneficiaries Coordination of all complementary services

25. 25 CONCLUSION  Globally, Social protection is now recognized as an important tool for poverty reduction in developing and under developed countries  The government of Ghana since the 1990s until recently has implemented various social protection interventions to reduce poverty  With the establishment of Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, initially the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Government’s focus is to co-ordinate these interventions to ensure that they reach the needy or target groups  This requires the release of adequate funds and in a timely manner, building capacity and logistics for implementing bodies to deliver on their mandate  Finally, the implementation of the Ghana LEAP programme is a clear evidence of how extreme poverty can be reduced

26. 26 CONCLUSION (cont’d)  The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is currently working with all key stakeholder Social Protection Ministry including the Office of the President, Ministry of Finance and the National Development planning to establish Institutional Structures at the National, Regional, District and Community levels to effectively and efficiently coordinate all Social Protection Interventions including the LEAP.

27. 27 Asante sana