Over 450, 000 households would this year benefit from the social intervention policy of Livelihood and Empowerment Against Poverty, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisah Djaba yesterday revealed when she addressed the 56th session of the Commission on Social Development at the United Nations.
She also revealed that the number of school children benefiting from the School Feeding Program has also been increased from 1.6Million to 2.1Million pupils’.
The Minister explained that all those strategic social interventions have helped Ghana to be one of the few countries to "meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by the year 2015"
She also mentioned how the free SHS policy had helped over 90,000, students enrolled in Senior High School who hitherto would have stayed home because of financial constraints.
Madam Otiko Djaba further harped on the importance of the policy of Planting for Food and Jobs in the nation's quest to eradicate poverty by the year 2030.
The Minister is leading a high powered Ghanaian delegation from her Ministry, Parliament and Civil Society to attend the session which is on the theme "Strategies for eradicating poverty to achieve sustainable development for all".
The implementation of the LEAP Programme represents government of Ghana's vision of creating an all-inclusive society through the provision of sustainable mechanisms for the protection of persons living in situations of extreme poverty, vulnerability and exclusion.
LEAP programme, is a social cash transfer programme that provides cash and health insurance to the extremely poor households across the country.
Its main aim is to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. In 2008, LEAP was launched as Ghana's flagship programme of the National Social Protection Strategy and was largely funded by the government of Ghana and supported by the World Bank and DFID. It also receives technical support from UNICEF's social protection unit.
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