Deal with plight of underprivileged
In 2008, the Kufuor Administration, the first New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under the Fourth Republican Constitution, launched the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), a social intervention programme that provides cash and health insurance to extremely poor households across the country.
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LEAP is Ghana's flagship programme of the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) and is largely funded by the government and supported by the World Bank and DFID. It also receives technical support from UNICEF's social protection unit.
The main aim of the programme is to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development.
Leap package
Even though one may consider the LEAP package as small, there is no doubt that it is helping to resolve some social problems in various beneficiary households where in some instances children, who were hitherto out of school as a result of extreme poverty, have returned to the classroom.
Even though LEAP is working well in some communities, the broad picture is that a large number of people is still in poverty and there is the urgent need for the government to find ways to address these challenges confronting the socially disadvantaged in the society to restore some hope and dignity to their lives.
As of now, the most vulnerable of all are the physically challenged, who as a result of their conditions are unable to engage in any meaningful work that would earn them some income to take care of themselves and their dependants.
The sad thing about this group of vulnerable people is their inability to procure certain basic needs which usually help to keep body and soul together.
Currently, there are over three million persons with disabilities in Ghana who are entitled to education, employment, health, economic welfare, recreation, the built environment, justice, information and governance.
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The employed
In the same vein I share in the plight of some of the workers in the public and private sector whose remuneration is nothing to write home about. Their income levels are so low that they have to engage in bribery and corruption in order to survive. As for the unemployed they have to engage in all kinds of vices to make ends meet. Consequently, a lot of them have resorted to armed robbery, petty thievery, cyber crimes (sakawa) and prostitution because they also have some obligations to fulfil to their nuclear family and other extended family members. As for the physically challenged, the option left for them is to beg for alms to take care of their needs.
There is no doubt that government is determined to introduce some interventions to make the underprivileged, poor and vulnerable live above water but in my view, more needs to be done to give hope to these groups of people whose unfortunate situations have created a dent on the conscience of the good people of Ghana.
National survey
In addressing these issues, a solution should be proffered for these problems confronting the huge number of Ghanaians living under very deplorable conditions by conducting a national survey to identify where every Ghanaian lives, the conditions under which they live, whether employed or unemployed, physically challenged or not as well as the social status
It is only through these findings that government will be able to find solutions to the needs of these people. As for the well-endowed in the society, they would not be of much concern to government unlike the unemployed and the vulnerable bracket.
Addressing the problems
Some of the methods the government can employ to address these issues should include the classification of these people into different categories because their problems require different solutions.
For the unemployed, they should be made to register at designated job centres and after going through the process, government could use the statistics generated to create some packages that would sustain them while being groomed to prepare them for the job market. Employers should be obligated and encouraged to recruit from these centres whenever the need arises. However, those who do not show seriousness and the desire to work could be taken off the government’s package scheme.
Similarly, those who are very deprived and have no decent place of abode should be catered for and accommodated in government designated shelters that would be built across the country, especially in major cities and towns to save them from the ravages of the weather.
Optimistic steps
Even though one may see these recommendations as utopian, it is very imperative for the government to act fast by showing compassion and commitment to the large number of people out there who are constantly struggling for survival. It is only through this that the government can confidently claim that it is working in the interest of the people whose mandate has given them the opportunity to serve them.
Sincerely, if the government plans strategically for these groups of people and money is alloted to them monthly or quarterly, it will go a long way to address some of the nagging issues they face. Since the government receives all the revenue generated in this country, while its disbursement is not done to cover all the economic and social spheres of society, public and civil servants dip their hands into public coffers, inflate cost of public projects to enrich themselves against the interest of the rest of the citizenry.
Irrespective of other views people may hold about this, I am an optimist and believe in the issues I have enumerated and I am confident that they are attainable. Let us give it a try so that at the end of the day, we will applaud the immense social benefits that will be derived from this initiative.