The World Bank says Ghana needs to better co-ordinate and target its social protection policies to meet the needs of the poor and vulnerable.
“Ghana has a lot of well-intended welfare schemes that are not targeted. There are a lot of services that are not going to the poor. The missing part of the equation is rationalisation and efficiency,” the World Bank Country Director, Mr Yusupha B. Crookes, said at a round-table discussion in Accra.
The discussion centred on inequality, growth and poverty reduction in Ghana and it also examined the increasing inequality in Ghana in spite of increasing growth, the policy imperative for sustaining growth and reducing poverty.
Mr Crookes observed that the School Feeding Programme was an example of social welfare policy, adding that although intended for the poor it might not be well targeted because children in some schools that might not qualify for the programme were being included to the detriment of those who really needed the intervention.
He, however, commended the government for initiating plans to build a database for poor households to enhance its ability to deliver social interventions to those who really needed it.
Ghana’s social protection
Ghana’s social protection floor addresses issues of access to essential health services, income security for children, income security for persons of working age and income security for older persons.
Apart from that, the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme are all meant to cushion poor households but a lot of questions have been raised about their efficiency in meeting needs of the intended beneficiaries.
While commending Ghana for its thriving democracy and friendly business environment, he said the country’s macro-economic front was stressed.
Currently, the country’s economy has been bedevilled with high inflation, high interest rates and a cedi that is on a daily slide against the major trading currencies.
The economy
A lead economist of the World Bank Country Office, Mr Santiago Herrera, said reforms that supported productivity and an effective public spending were antidotes to the economic difficulties facing the country.
According to the World Bank, during the past 20 years, Ghana’s economic growth has been positive.
The growth, Mr Herrera said, could be linked to Ghana’s natural resources like gold and cocoa, adding that oil was an important resource which would peak in 2020.
He, however, indicated that oil was not a guarantee of success as many oil producers like Venezuela, Mexico, South Africa and Algeria were worse off now compared to 1970.
Some participants who contributed to the discussions said it was crucial to improve governance and to reduce corruption in order to achieve the desired growth rate.
Others criticised the World Bank for using government data which were not always accurate and true reflections of challenges facing Ghanaians.
Throwing more light on the poverty and inequality situation in Africa, the Chief Economist of the World Bank, Africa Region, Mr Francisco H.G Ferreira, said growth that took place in rural areas where most of the poor lived was the most effective way of reducing poverty.
“In Africa, most of the growth has not been coming from places and sectors where the poor are,” he added.
He said if 10 per cent of a country’s natural resource earnings were targeted at the poor during social interventions like LEAP, it would reduce poverty.
