SIF urges harmonisation of poverty reduction funds
The Executive Director of the Social Investment Fund (SIF), Mr Joseph Acheampong, has advocated the creation of a pool of funds to support initiatives to fight poverty and create wealth in the country.
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He explained that under such an arrangement, all donor agencies supporting poverty reduction-related programmes would channel their funding into the pool to be managed by the SIF.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Acheampong explained that currently, almost every ministry was operating one fund or another geared towards poverty reduction, a situation which, according to him, did not ensure efficient utilisation of resources.
Best practice
Mr Acheampong said the best practice was to lodge all poverty reduction-targeted funds and interventions into one basket to be managed by one agency, and in Ghana’s case, the Social Development Fund Agency.
“We believe if the SIF should have a pool where all donors assisting poverty-related programmes put their funds, it will go a long way to assist Ghana to better trace and track the impact of poverty-related interventions on the citizenry,” he stated.
Mandate of SIF
The SIF was established in 1988 as a rapid, reliable and flexible mechanism for channelling resources to deliver targeted assistance to both Ghana’s urban and rural impoverished communities.
Mr Acheampong explained that the SIF employed effective institutional collaboration and co-operation, coupled with the right targeting and gender mainstreaming to create opportunities for the poor and the vulnerable.
“The major goal is to contribute effectively and rapidly to reduce rural and urban poverty in Ghana, increase the availability of basic economic and social infrastructure and services in poor communities and also improve the abilities of micro-finance institutions in poor communities to provide financial services to the poor and enhance the access of the poor to these financial services,” he explained.
He said the SIF was also to strengthen the capacities of community-based organisations (CBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local government authorities in support of the overall goal of poverty reduction.
Internally generated fund
The major challenge of SIF was inadequate funds for the numerous programmes and projects it had to support, the executive director said, and hinted that the fund was turning its attention to public, private partnerships to generate funds to support some of its projects.
Consequently, the SIF was collaborating with private and government institutions to provide consultancy services to generate funds to support some of its activities, Mr Acheampong explained.