Edzorna Francis Mensah
Government through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has debunked the assertion that the selection process of person(s) listed under Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme in Ghana is not open.
In refuting the allegation, the caretaker Minister, Cecilia Abena Daapa said, the Ministry has begun building a database for core poor Ghanaians in order to capture all poor nationwide to deepen the transparency process.
According to the Minister, the Ministry is currently building a database of the core poor in Ghana under the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) and so far, “we have collected data in Upper East, Upper West, North East, Savannah and Northern Regions”.
She said this is to facilitate the targeting of the poor for social Interventions including the LEAP Programme as she submitted that, “the selection of beneficiaries of the Livelihood
Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme is a transparent process”.
The sector Minister made this known on the floor of Parliament on 2nd March 2022 when she responded to a question filed by MP for Keta, Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey on what steps the ministry is taking to ensure openness to the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme for all deserving citizens.
According to her, eligibility for LEAP is based on poverty status and having at
least one of the three demographic conditions such as households with orphan or vulnerable children (OVC), elderly poor and persons with extreme disability.
“Initial selection of poor households is done through a community-based process and is verified centrally with a proxy means test. Within the category of extreme poor, the programme further targets Households with one or more persons who are over 65 years of age, Persons living with a severe disability and Caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children”, she adds.
“As a result of a new initiative known as LEAP 1000, the programme also targeted households with a pregnant woman and children below one year of age in the year 2016.
The list of those who qualify is shared with the Communities
for validation through community durbars”.
