A non-governmental organisation, SEND Ghana, has called on the government to declare the funds it invested in social protection programmes in the country.
According to them, per its survey, the citizenry is eager to demand accountability from the various authorities when the information on funding is made public.
Speaking at Citi News after a forum to analyse the 2020 Political Party Manifestos on Social Protection, Country Director of SEND Ghana, George Osei-Bimpeh stated that enough financial resources must be devoted to some social protection programs.
“Transparency and accountability in the management of existing programs, citizens want the opaque nature to be improved upon so that they can hold duty bearers accountable. The last issue is about devoting financial resources to existing programs because the issue of expanding the coverage, issue of efficiency, the issue of ensuring that people get effective social protection service is a function of how much resources the country devote to that.”
The analysis touched on sectors such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, National Health Insurance Scheme, Ghana School Feeding Programme, Capitation Grant, Ghana National Household Registry, Labour Intensive Public Works, Legal/Framework Awareness of Social Protection Programmes, Financing Social Protection, Education, Persons with Disability, Women, Children, and Adolescent Girls
About the citizens manifesto
In collaboration with the CSO platform on the SDGs/SDG10, the Social Accountability Forum, and the Civil Society Platform on Social Protection, SEND Ghana led the organization of stakeholder consultations and the compilation of inputs into the citizens’ manifesto on social protection programs and policies last year.
The main objective was to influence the manifesto of the key political parties by adopting proposals made by citizens in addressing social protection issues and implementation and secondly to serve as a reference document to hold political parties /government accountable for the proper implementation of social protection programs.
It is important to note that the citizen’s manifesto on social protection programs and policies also provided public expectations on other social services that directly and indirectly complements key social protection programs.
Two political parties (NPP and NDC) having launched their manifestos in the last few weeks, SEND Ghana has conducted an analysis to ascertain the extent to which the demands presented in the citizen’s manifesto on social protection has reflected in the two political manifestos ahead of the December polls.
Click here for the full document.