Rolled out in January 2015 and expected to end in May 2018, the project, known as the Ghana Support for Rural Income Generation to Targeted Poor Persons Pilot, is benefiting 4,194 vulnerable persons of which 83 per cent are women.

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, made this known at the third Social Protection Dialogue organised by the ministry in Accra yesterday.

The dialogue was on the theme; “Promoting productive inclusive for sustainable economic growth.”

Productive inclusion interventions aim at enhancing the engagement with the economy of families living in poverty.

Beneficiaries

The project, which is for beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme and the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW), is being sponsored by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and the World Bank.

Ms Djaba said an additional 2,400 beneficiaries were to be added to the pilot project soon.

She said all over the world, there was a significant shift with the social protection system, as many countries were finding more sustainable and inclusive ways of ensuring that social protection interventions became a key tool to assisting the poor and vulnerable to escape poverty permanently.

Productive inclusiveness

The Programme Leader, Human Development, World Bank, Ms Kathleen Begle, said the World Bank was committed to scaling up the skills development project to help the vulnerable to be self sufficient.

“We believe that eradicating extreme poverty is achievable for Ghana,” she added.

The Country Representative, UNICEF, Ms Susan Ngongi, in a message, commended  and called for synergies of the different social interventions from different development partners to avoid duplications.

The Research Fellow and Co-Director, Centre for Social Protection at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, Dr Keetie Roelen, made a presentation on “Different models of ‘cash plus’ programmes from around the world: Linkages and delivery”.