Media urged to be watchdogs of social intervention policies
The Deputy Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye has urged the media to be watchers of social intervention policies to ensure that they are implemented effectively to reduce poverty.
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She said although the country had done well with the formulation of policies on social intervention, the effective implementation remained a challenge because people did not follow through the process.
She, therefore, urged the media to take up the challenge and follow through the implementation of social intervention policies in the country to ensure that efforts aimed at bridging the gap between the rich and poor was reduced.
At a media interactive session on “inclusive development: reporting the growing gap between rich and poor”, Dr Ofei-Aboagye said inequalities did not self-correct but required specifically designed policies backed by careful and inclusive implementation.
“Ghana is increasingly getting better with more inclusive policies. The problem is that not enough people follow the policy and its implementation.
“If the policy implementors know someone is watching and that person has a platform and if they don’t take care, there will be a problem, they will be forced to ensure that the policies are fully implemented,” she said at the event organised by the United Nations Children’s International Fund (UNICEF) for selected journalists in the country.
In Ghana, there are a number of social intervention policies that have been introduced by successive governments. They include the School Feeding Programme, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), National Health Insurance Scheme among others.
Fight against poverty
Dr Ofei-Aboagye said the fight against poverty was a shared responsibility and not only the preserve of the government.
She said there was evidence to show that social intervention projects were gradually migrating people from abject poverty into some level of self-sustainability and financial independence, hence the need to better target these projects to ensure better outcomes.
She said the widening gap of poverty was not good because social inequality created disaffection among people.
Media interaction
The Deputy Residential Representative of UNICEF Ghana, Ms Rushnan Murtaza said the media interaction became necessary due to the low coverage on the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the country and the need for the media to champion this cause.
“This is part of efforts to include everyone in the development process. We want the media to become champions and advocates for poverty related issues and inclusive development,” she said.
She added that the media must keep the dialogue on inclusive development alive and in the process make themselves and others responsible.
At the end of the session, journalists were tasked to follow up on the implementation of social intervention projects that have been introduced by the government. — GB