She said there are opportunities for more responsive social developments, through dialogue and social accountability, which can lead to effective collaboration. Ms Djaba said this at the National Stakeholders Consultative Workshop to validate the Draft Social Protection Policy Implementation Plan in Accra.

She said Ghana is undergoing transformation on several fronts including the transition to middle income country status, information and communication advancements, and increasing urbanization.

Ms Djaba said sustainable development involves the strategic mobilisation and deployment of a nation’s endowments, particularly its human resources, and that, ‘it was time we rigorously pursue productive inclusion and decent work agenda”.She said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated on several platforms that, Ghana 60 years on, should be able to develop beyond aid and that the Ministry believes that there was the need to empower people to realise their basic rights and to participate effectively in socio-economic life by giving them the right skills and tools.

The Gender Minister said President Akufo-Addo has demonstrated that Ghanaians in general, have to be taken out of poverty, and that, this could visibly be seen in the numerous plans and programmes such as the Free Senior High School, One District One Factory, One Village One Dam and Planting for Food and Jobs among others.

“All these initiatives are attempts to free Ghanaians from poverty as well as implement our national development agenda and also meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.  She said the Ministry plans to launch a help line of ‘Hope’ to receive complaints and deal with issues of rape, child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence as well as an information and advisory hub for the marginalised.

She urged the participants to generate the required inputs to make the validation of this Implementation Plan a success and hoped that the Social Protection Implementation Plan will be finalized and validated to enable the Ministry to fully tackle Social Protection issues head on.

She also expressed the hope that 15 years after the implementation of the Policy, Ghanaians would work together to reduce by more than half, the proportion of men, women and children living in all forms of poverty; achieve full and productive employment for all, including young people and people with disabilities and substantially increase access to formal Social Security for Ghanaians of working age and older persons.