Decentralise Gender, Social Protection Programs For Maximum Impact

The Programme Advocacy and Communications Officer of the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) Mrs. Rosemond Sumaya Kumah, has appealed to the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection Nana Oye Lithur, to endeavour to decentralise programs of the ministry to the grassroots level so that they could make maximum impact on the lives of marginalized and vulnerable groups.    

She observed that, there was too much concentration of policy programs of the ministry at the national and regional levels much to the detriment of persons and groups in the rural areas who eventually become the beneficiaries, adding “most of the rural people especially women are not aware of the existence of some social protection programs for them and even those who are aware, do not also know how to access them.”

Speaking to this writer during a media review meeting of GDCA’s 5-year project dubbed “Empowerment for Life (E4L)”, Mrs. Kumah encouraged the minister to have the rural areas top of her agenda so that the lives of women and children and their social protection needs could be taken care of very well.       

Mrs. Kumah who is also a gender advocate said there was nothing wrong with President  John Dramani Mahama appointing only females at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection although some people would view that move as gender-bias. 

She commended the President for his excellent appointments so far especially giving women the opportunity to serve in his government. She urged the President to further consider appointing more women on Boards of state agencies and also as Chief Executive Officers.  

E4L is implemented in fifteen Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern Region of Ghana. They include Tamale Metroplis, Yendi Municipality, Tolon-Kumbungu, Savelugu-Nanton, Karaga, Gushiegu, Saboba, Chereponi, Nanumba North, Nanumba South, Zabzugu, West Mamprusi, East Gonja, West Gonja and Kpandai.

The programme which was launched on 1^st January, 2010 and is expected to end on 31^st December, 2014, is aimed at empowering the poor, vulnerable and marginalised group in the aforementioned areas to have the capacity and ability to improve their quality of life through education, employment, local organisation as well as better access to and management of food and water resources on the basis of a right-based approach.

The programme was among other things targeting a primary group of 66,545 people and a secondary group consisting of 64,815 people. It has been grouped into two phases with the first phase covering the period from 1^st January 2010 to 31^st December 2011 whilst the second phase covered the period from 1^st January 2012 to 31^st December 2014.

The EfL project was relying on strategies that would focus more on advocacy as compared to service delivery and also focused on tracking all root causes of inequalities and making them known to those who should fulfil those rights. 

Whilst supporting the right holders to demand their rights and giving voice to the voiceless, capacity building was also organised to help duty-bearers and right-holders with the needed capacity to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively.

 

Meanwhile a Complementary Basic Education Draft Policy document, an invention of one of GDCA’s auxiliary organisations –School for Life, is currently being revised by the Ghana Education Service and expected to start implementation by May 2013 when it is launched. 

Financially supported by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom government and UNICEF with an estimated amount of £17.6 million, implementation would last within three years (2013 – 2015). As part of the inception phase, the management unit of GES is currently conducting a mapping exercise to select regions and implementing partners for the first year.  

The Complementary Basic Education Policy document provided guidelines in the delivery of complementary basic education in deprived communities where a considerable number of children were still out of school. It is estimated that close to 1 million children of school age in Ghana were still out of the formal schooling system and if urgent steps were not taken to revert the trend, there could be a greater percentage of illiterate Ghanaians in future.