Ghana’s ambition to eradicate poverty under the Sustainable Development Goals may not be fully achieved as many beneficiaries of social protection programmes do little to demand better livelihood support from the government.

The Civil Society Platform for Social Protection-Ghana is re-echoing the need for Ghanaians to appreciate their entitlement to programmes under the government’s social protection policy.

They believe the approach of seeing the policy as a right, and not a charity, would facilitate poverty eradication in the country by 2030.

Goal 1 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals seeks to eradicate poverty globally by 2030.   

Under a National Social Protection policy, the government constituted a framework in response to vulnerability and poverty.

Five programmes, including the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), are to guarantee relief for a section of the Ghanaian population.

However, the national policy – enshrined as a right of the people – has over the years been fraught with ineffective implementation as the deadline for the SDGs beckons.

Civil Society Organisations are citing the lack of insights into concepts underpinning the policy as a major reason for the ineffectual roll-out of the programmes.

Social Policy Specialist with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Christiana Gbedemah says empowering the demand side of social protection can facilitate successful implementation.

Christiana Gbedemah - Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF

“If you know you have the right to something, the way you approach it is different than when you think it’s a gift or a favour. The government has a duty to respect, promote, protect, and fulfill these rights,” she said.

Available data suggests that over 2 million Ghanaians live in abject poverty as of 2022.

Under Ghana’s 3-billion-dollar IMF bailout, the government has committed to expanding the LEAP coverage to all 2.4 million extremely poor individuals by 2024 as estimated by the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS).

Stakeholders believe a continuous target could only be achieved if the government prioritises social protection as a right of the people.

“After the three-year programme, we want to see a continuous commitment by the government to the social sector. The government can only assure this if they see social protection as a right for Ghanaians with or without the IMF programme,” she added.

In Ghana, street begging is an unmistakable sight to behold despite being an unlawful practice.

Section 2 (clause 1) of the Beggars and Destitute Act, 1969 (NLCD 392) prohibits any individual from begging on the streets of Ghana.

But many defy the law and pour onto the streets to seek charitable support from passers-by. 

The CSOs are partly attributing the seemingly unending begging habits to reduced implementation of livelihood projects to support genuinely poverty-stricken individuals. 

Member of Inclusion Ghana, Auberon Jeleel Odoom says government must increase the promotion of programmes under social protection.

“Many people do not know that social protection is their right. If people know there is an intervention by government, it means people can submit themselves to be assessed and benefit from such programmes. But because the programme is not properly promoted, people do not know,” he said charging government to create awareness.

Auberon Jeleel Odoom - Inclusion Ghana

The group hopes to establish a coalition of media practitioners and build their capacities to expand awareness of the need to address matters relating to social protection.

A campaign to drum home the demands is set to be launched in November 2023 to accelerate the implementation of policies under the programme.