Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Addressing Poverty in Ghana

Poverty Reduction to Social Protection

Name: Prof. Esme Manful

Department: Sociology & Social Work
Faculty & College: FoSS / CoHSS
SOWK 259
05/03/24
 Expected Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lecture the student should be able
to:
i. Differentiate between the different terminologies
in addressing poverty
ii. Describe the five main poverty reduction strategies
adopted by Ghana in this century
iii. Explain the concept of Social Protection
iv. Discuss the basic elements of a Social Protection
Floor
v. Describe Social Protection programmes in Ghana
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 Terminologies
• Poverty reduction usually refers to strategies and
policies that reduce the number or percentage of people
living in poverty or the severity of the impact of poverty
on the lives of poor people.
• Poverty relief refers to policies and interventions that
seek to give short term assistance to a person who is
living in poverty, and is usually linked to some external
shock that pushes people into a more severe state of
vulnerability than before.
• Poverty alleviation aims to reduce the negative impact
of poverty on the lives of poor people, but in a more
sustained and permanent way than poverty relief
programmes. It tends to have longer term goals and are
in general more developmental.
• Poverty eradication government commitments to
ending the existence of poverty.
 Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) I
2003 – 2005
• Comprehensive policy document prepared as a pre-
condition for Ghana to benefit from a significant measure
of debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country
Initiative (HIPC).
• Primarily aimed at positioning the country in an improved
macroeconomic environment to address critical issues of
poverty on an emergency basis.
• Focused on that component of human development which
targeted measures designed to improve access of Ghana’s
population to basic needs and essential services, with
programmes in basic education, safe water and improved
health, environmental sanitation, modernised agriculture,
private sector development, and good governance.
 Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II
2006 - 2009
• Shifts focus and context from GPRS I to
accelerated growth of the economy towards
sustained poverty reduction and the attainment
of middle income status within a measurable
planning period.
• It focused on implementing growth-inducing
policies and programmes which have the
potential to transform the structure of the
economy and maximize the benefits of shared
accelerated growth.
 Ghana Shared Growth and Development
Agenda I (GSGDA) 2010-2013
• The aim was to accelerate the growth of the economy
and raise the living standards of Ghanaians.
• The main target of this policy framework was to put the
economy on the path to achieving a per capita income
of least US $ 3000 by 2020 and attaining the
Millennium Development Goals.
• It encompasses aspects of human development,
improved governance and infrastructure development,
with a particular focus on the climate change relevant
topics of oil and gas exploitation, agricultural
modernisation and energy supply/use transformation.
Ghana Shared Growth and Development
Agenda II 2014-2017
Prospects included:
1. building or strengthening the essential elements of good governance
2. promoting light manufacturing that builds upon Ghana’s
comparative strength in natural resource endowments and the large
pool of skilled and semi-skilled labour force.

Transformation platforms included:

1. key pillars as institutional capacity and management;
2. a growing infrastructure base;
3. an enabling environment for business;
4. social intervention and public safety net to ensure that Ghana’s
development process is inclusive; and
5. an abundance of relatively high quality labour
 THE COORDINATED PROGRAMME OF ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES (2017-2024)
Based on the agenda for change:
a. places people at the centre of development, and
b. lays the foundation for a safe Ghana that works, and
c. gives each one the opportunity to improve his or her lives,
irrespective of socio-economic background, gender,
status, tribe or geographical location.
It entails achieving the following:
i. Creating opportunities for all Ghanaians;
ii. Safeguarding the natural environment and ensuring a
resilient built environment;
iii. Maintaining a stable, united and safe country; and
iv. Building a prosperous nation.
 Definitions of Social Protection
‘social protection encompasses the instruments
that tackle chronic and shock-induced poverty
and vulnerability’ (Sabates-Wheeler and
Haddad, 2005).

‘social protection is the set of public and private

policies and programmes aimed at preventing,
reducing and eliminating economic and social
vulnerabilities to poverty and deprivation’
(UNICEF, 2008).
 Rationale for Social Protection
1. Social Protection is a human right.

2. Social Protection is instrumental to the

achievement of a broader range of
development goals, including poverty
reduction, education, health, social
inclusion, empowerment and state-building

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 Objectives of Social Protection
1. reducing poverty and
vulnerability, building human
capital,
2. empowering women and girls,
3. improving livelihoods, and
4. responding to economic and
other shocks.
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 Natural & Man-made Risks
Efforts at helping individuals, families and / or
citizens to mitigate, prevent or cope with natural
and man-made risks that affect their livelihood
and survival.
Risks include:
A. drought, earthquakes,

B. fire, economic slow-down, social exclusion

and inequality across age, under employment
and unemployment
Social Protection Floors Initiative (SPF-I)
❑ The term Social Protection Floor is a global and coherent
social policy concept
❑ Adopted by the Chief Executives Board of the United
Nations in April 2009 as response to the financial crisis in
2008

❑ ‘Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of

basic social security guarantees that should ensure, as a
minimum that, over the life cycle, all in need have access
to essential health care and to basic income security which
together secure effective access to goods and services
defined as necessary at the national level’
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 The SPF - I
The Initiative:
1. promotes a holistic and coherent vision of national
social protection systems as a key component of
national development strategies;
2. supports countries in identifying and closing crucial
protection gaps through coherent and efficient
measures that maximize the effects of scarce
resources on the reduction of poverty and insecurity;
3. ensures concerted actions of UN agencies, national
governments and stakeholders as well donor
agencies in order to alleviate the negative social
impact of the crisis and increase the resilience of
societies against the impact of future crises.
 Main Elements of the SPF-I

(1)Essential Services: i.e. geographical and financial

access to essential services (such as water and
sanitation, adequate nutrition, health and education,
housing, and other services including life and asset
saving information); and

(2)Essential Social Transfers: i.e. social transfers, in cash

and in kind, paid to the poor and vulnerable to provide
a minimum income and health security.
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 Social Protection Floors (SPFs)
Social Protection Floors are guarantees which secure
protection aimed at preventing or alleviating poverty,
vulnerability and social exclusion.
It is expected to comprise at least the following four social
security guarantees for all citizens without exception:
I. access to essential health care, including maternity care;
II. basic income security for children, providing access to
nutrition, education, care and any other necessary goods
and services;
III.basic income security for persons in active age who are
unable to earn sufficient income, in particular in cases of
sickness, unemployment, maternity and disability;
IV.basic income security for older persons.
SPF- I cont.

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 Strategies for effective Social
Protection
1. The coverage (i.e. the number of people helped)

2. Size of transfers need to increase,

3. Strong institutions – well skilled staffed and

resourced
4. Social contract – whereby social protection comes to
be accepted and supported by political institutions
and citizens of a country.

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 Types of Social Protection
1. Social Assistance
2. Social Insurance
3. Labour Market Interventions
4. Social Legislation
5. Traditional or Informal Social Protection

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 Social Assistance
• Is direct, regular and predictable cash or in-kind
resources transfers to poor and vulnerable
individuals or households. It is usually provided
by the State and financed by national taxes.
• Transfers are non-contributory, i.e. the full
amount is paid by the provider.
• Targeted based on categories of vulnerability, and
some are targeted broadly to low-income groups.

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 Social Assistance cont.
• Cash transfers: are direct, regular and
predictable transfers that raise and smooth
incomes to reduce poverty and vulnerability
• In-kind transfers: are economic and livelihood
asset transfers to households, facilitating
income generation. They tend to be larger,
one-off transfers but can also be smaller,
regular transfers, such as food transfers.
• Social pensions: are State pensions, a form of
cash transfer targeted by age.
 Social Legislation
The legal framework that defines and protects
citizens’ rights, and ensures minimum civic
standards to safeguard the interests of
individuals. Examples are:
•Single Spine Pay Policy,
•Children’s Act of 1998,
•Minimum and Equal Pay Legislation
 Social Insurance
• These are contributory programmes where participants
make regular payments to a scheme that will cover costs
related to life-course events, for example, maternity,
unemployment or illness.
• Sometimes costs are matched or subsidised by the scheme
provider. Social insurance includes contributory pensions;
health, unemployment, or disaster insurance; and funeral
assistance.
• It can be provided formally through a bank or employer, or
informally through a community-based pooled fund. Social
insurance is strongly linked to the formal labour market,
meaning coverage is often limited to formal workers.
 Labour Market Interventions
Labour market interventions provide protection for poor
people who are able to work, and aim to ensure basic
standards and rights (Interventions can be active or
passive:
i. Active labour market policies aim to help the unemployed and
the most vulnerable find jobs, through interventions such as job
centres, training, and policies to promote small and medium
sized enterprises.[Public works programmes]
ii. Passive interventions include maternity benefits, injury
compensation, and sickness benefits for those already in work,
financed by the employer. Passive interventions also include
changes to legislation, for example establishing a minimum wage
or safe working conditions.
Traditional or Informal Social Protection
• Traditional community-based forms of social
protection distribute risk within a
community and fill some of the gaps left by
formal interventions.

• They are often self-funded, e.g. funeral

insurance, savings groups
 SOCIAL PROTECTION IN GHANA:
National Social Protection Policy
Launched in June 2016
Aims
• to deliver a well-coordinated, inter-sectoral social protection
system enabling people to live in dignity through income
support, livelihoods empowerment and improved access to
systems of basic services.
• it seeks to promote the well-being of Ghanaians through an
integrated platform of effective social assistance, social and
productive inclusion, social insurance, and financial access to
social services, and
• it aspires to mitigate and reduce vulnerabilities for all, close
the inequality gap, and ensure total inclusion for all
 EXISTING SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMES

HEALTH
• National Health Insurance Scheme and the pro poor
exemptions for indigents, aged 70+
• Free Maternal and Child Health Care

EDUCATION
• Free Senior High School Education
• Compulsory Basic Education
• School Feeding Programme
• Education Capitation Grant
 PROGRAMMES cont.
LIVELIHOODS
• Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP)
• Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW)
• Block Farming Initiative
• Fertilizer Subsidies
• Planting for Food and Jobs

Contributory Pensions Scheme.

SSNIT
 Labour Intensive Public Works Programme (LIPW)

The objective is to provide jobs and income

security to the poor during off season farming
activities.
Activities being implemented include:
a. Construction of Small Dams,
b. Maintenance of Irrigation,
c. Road construction.
 SOCIAL PROTECTION FINANCING IN GHANA
Statutory Payments (Taxations)
• National Health Insurance Scheme
• Schools Capitation Grants

Multi Donor Budget Support

• School Feeding Programme
• LEAP Programme

Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW)

• Support from World Bank Loan
 Bibliography
• Aryeetey, E., & Goldstein, M. (2000). Ghana social policy reform in Africa. In
D. A. Morales-Gómez, N. Tschirgi, & J. L. Moher, Reforming social policy:
Changing perspectives on sustainable human development (1 ed., pp. 9-44).
Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.
• Manful, E., Yeboah, E. H. and Owusu Bembah, E. (2015). The Impacts and
Challenges of the Ghana School Feeding Programme as a Social Protection
Tool. Journal of Critical Southern Studies. 3, 40-52.
• Barder, O. (2009). What Is Poverty Reduction? London: Center for Global
Development. Retrieved November 3, 2015, from
http://www.cgdev.org/files/1421599_file_Barder_Poverty_Reduction.pdf
• Gross,R. (2007) Definitions of Key Social Protection Terms from other
Donors. NY: USAID
• Kraai, N. (2008). What is Poverty Relief, Poverty Alleviation, Poverty
Reduction and Poverty Eradication? Retrieved November 3, 2015, from
http://www.nda.org.za/docs/what%20do%20we%20mean%20by%20povert
y.pdf
• Browne, E. (2015). Social protection: Topic guide. Birmingham, UK: GSDRC,
University of Birmingham.
http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/socialprotection.pdf