Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisah Djaba has disclosed that the LEAP program covers 112,367 households in the three Northern Regions. According to the minister, out of the 112,367 households, Upper West had 38,133, Upper East 31,061 and with the rest 43,173 recorded in the Northern Region.

The program currently covers 254 districts nationwide with 213,044 beneficiary households. Government through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has improved the flagship social intervention. Ms. Otiko Djaba said the new direction for the LEAP program is in accordance with government’s vision of building Ghana beyond aid.  “The LEAP program is designed with the understanding that poverty and vulnerability are multi-dimensional and therefore requires inter-sectoral stakeholder collaboration in order to make meaningful and sustainable impacts on its beneficiaries.” She noted that the objective of the program is to reduce extreme poverty and promote human capital development among LEAP beneficiaries through increased collaboration and linkages with other social services.

However, the Gender Minister, craved the indulgence of the various MMDCEs in the three Northern regions to encourage and support the Ghana Health Service Directorate in their respective assemblies to collaborate with the ministry through the LEAP programme to attend to the health needs of LEAP beneficiaries. She made this known during a one-day sensitization workshop for MMDCEs and MMDCDs from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions held in Tamale.

The Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Sa-eed said, the LEAP program, since its inception, has chalked many successes in the three Northern regions by way of increased enrollment in schools, attendance and retention among children of LEAP households, improvement in health care service delivery for LEAP households which has increased NHIS coverage from 28% in 2010 to 52% in 2016. He added that, in spite of all the achievements chalked by the program, it has its own challenges.

Mr. Salifu Sa-eed indicated that, there are lots of misconceptions surrounding the program with some people speculating that the program is making people lazy and that less than half of the extremely poor population is covered under the program. He, therefore, urged all MMDCEs and MMDCDs to consolidate their success and help improve and propel the LEAP program to a higher pedestal. “It is important for all MMDCEs to work closely with stakeholders to address the challenges of the program.”

SOURCE: DAILY GUIDE PAGE 15, GHANAWEB.COM

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection Madam Otiko Afisah Djaba, has revealed that government’s free SHS is a significant tool to eradicate poverty in Ghana thereby contributing to improved livelihoods among Ghanaians.

She said this today April 4, 2018, during a one-day sensitization workshop for MMDCEs in the three regions of the north held in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale. The event was organized by the Secretariat of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program. The Minister explained that, education is crucial in the fight towards poverty eradication thus the free senior high school is keen in achieving this objective. Madam Otiko mentioned that, poverty is not for Ghanaians but rather a disease to Ghanaians which needs to be eliminated and for that matter the introduction of the LEAP program. She said, the program currently has over 213,044 beneficiary households across the 254 districts in the country which translates into about 937,904 individual beneficiaries.

The Gender Minister underscored the need to support the LEAP program saying, the new direction of the LEAP program is in accordance to the vision of President Nana Addo and his government to build a Ghana beyond aid. In a related development, the Northern Regional Minister Hon Salifu Saeed has implored all MMDCEs to consolidate their successes and take the LEAP program to a greater height by working closely with stakeholders of the program to address the challenges faced by the program.  Hon. Salifu Saeed recounted the importance of the sensitization workshop stating that it would enable MMDCEs to acquire the relevant knowledge and skills on the LEAD program. “As MMDCEs you need to possess knowledge and skills on LEAP program and have clarity of their roles and responsibilities in order to be able to discharge your duties towards a successful implementation of the LEAP program in your respective areas” He urged.

 

 

SOURCE: RAINBOWRADIOONLINE.COM

Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is a social protection intervention of the Government of Ghana with the aim of reducing extreme poverty by increasing consumption and nutrition, as well as promoting access to social services and opportunities among the extreme poor and vulnerable in the Ghana. As part of efforts to promote social accountability, human rights and active citizenship among beneficiary households, the LEAP Programme has developed a Beneficiary Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. The Charter outlines the rights and responsibilities of beneficiary household members and service providers. This is in recognition of the fact that often the rights of the extremely poor and vulnerable are prone to violation in the course asserting their rights and during service delivery. In view of the actual or potential abuse or violations of rights of especially LEAP households, the LEAP beneficiary rights and responsibilities Charter has been developed to guarantee and safeguard their rights. As LEAP households will be empowered to assert their rights; the Charter also reminds them of their responsibilities. To sensitize beneficiary households and other stakeholders on the Charter, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been contracted to this assignment.

The engagement of CSOs for the sensitization is intended to enhance the independence and credibility of the sensitization processes. It is for this reason that the LEAP Management Secretariat organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for District Social Welfare Officers (DSWOs) and the CSOs across the country. The ToT workshops were organized simultaneously in four centres across the country on the 28^th December 2018 – Tamale, Obuasi, Larteh and Mankessim. These centres were based on the zoning of the regions into: Northern (Upper East, Upper West & Northern Regions); Middle (Brong Ahafo & Ashanti Regions) South-West (Greater Accra, Western & Central) and South-East (Eastern, Volta & Central Regions).  Additionally, the workshop provided participants especially the CSOs a thorough overview of the LEAP Programme including its targeting and enrolment procedures and Payment mechanisms.

The LEAP Management Secretariat (LMS) trained selected DSWOs and CCPHs on a Revised Case Management Manual from 27-29^th August 2017. Case Management deals with the grievances, claims, complaints and other issues of programme beneficiary household member information update from LEAP beneficiary households, and from other stakeholders of the LEAP programme. The essence of Case Management is to protect the rights and interest of beneficiary households and quality assurance of the programme.

 

The objectives of the training workshop were:

 

1. To clarify roles & responsibilities of stakeholders on case management.
2. Build consensus and solicit support of stakeholders for the programme’s effective implementation.
3. Have a shared understanding of Case Management processes and build capacity of key stakeholders for case resolution.
4. Build capacity of DSWOs to complete case and updates forms appropriately.

In attendance at the Training Workshop was HON. OTIKO AFISAH DJABA, MINISTER OF GENDER, CHILDREN AND SOCIAL PROTECTION.  The honourable Minister encouraged participants to work harder to improve the lives of the extreme poor and vulnerable in Ghana. She also announce the refocusing of the programme into a “new LEAP”. The honourable Minister called the new LEAP programme, “CASH PLUS”. Cash plus is about productive inclusion of LEAP households to build their capacities for comfortable exit from the programme after two years of benefiting.