SEND Ghana, a not-for-profit development-oriented organisation has called on the government to release all 2020 allocations for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to facilitate mainstreaming its flagship programmes in this COVID-19 era.

In its release signed by Mr George Osei-Akoto Bimpeh, Country Director and copied to the Ghana News Agency, it said most targets set in the 2020 budget statement and economic policy have impacted negatively on the economy and needed reset.

This is imperative as the Minister of Finance prepares to read the 2020 Mid-Year Budget insisting the maintenance of funding to key social protection programmes including; the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.

It said at least 90 percent allocated funds for policy and system development including; child protection and Social Welfare Information Management and operationalization of the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System (GCLMS) should be maintained.

The statement said the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service must ensure continuous learning opportunities that are ongoing reach all vulnerable children in deprived communities currently cut off from government's television, radio and other virtual learning platforms.

It asked the Ministry of Finance to increase the health sector budget to at least 15 percent of annual budget allocation to health in line with the Abuja Declaration to continue equitable distribution and supply of Personal Protective Equipment, testing services.

It suggests an improvement in access to water especially to poor-urban areas and hard to serve rural areas as reports show 20 percent of the population lacked access to basic drinking water.

It noted to achieve the SDGs agenda of leaving no one behind, the government should institute deliberate mechanisms to link the poor and other disadvantaged groups such as women smallholder farmers, disabled farmers and LEAP beneficiaries to Planting for Food and Jobs, providing increased subsidies and timely access to inputs.

It called on the government to provide frequent updates on inflows and outflows with the Ministry of Finance collaborating with CSOs to conduct public expenditure tracking surveys.