LET'S SUPPORT LEAP

PEOPLE who live on one dollar a day all over the world are classified as the extremely poor and in Ghana, we have many such people. Most peasant farmers and some residents of urban slums are also extremely poor.
No doubt, one of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halve poverty by the year 2015.
Although some developing countries, such as Ghana, are said to be working hard to attain the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a cursory look around indicates it is a very tall order, particularly in view of the mass migration of unemployed youth to urban centres for non-existent jobs.
This trend must account for the growing poverty in most urban centres.
It is for this reason that the DAILY GRAPHIC commends efforts by the government to introduce the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme meant to alleviate the suffering of the poor.
At a press briefing last Thursday, the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Nana Akomea, explained that under the programme, the government would spend less than one per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to achieve payment to extremely poor Ghanaian households, a major complementary measure to relieve “fellow citizens who at the moment found themselves in the category of extremely poor, vulnerable and excluded”.
The LEAP programme is a component of the National Social Protection Strategy, which aims at investing in people through social assistance schemes.
Poverty is everywhere in the world, including even the advanced societies; the difference, however, lies in measures put in place to alleviate poverty. In some countries, safety nets have been provided for the poor to eke out a living.
That is what the government has conceived, albeit on a modest scale to provide for the basic needs of the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded.
Whatever the challenges may be, it behoves all of us to support it instead of reading political meaning into it.
Unfortunately for us, we, as a people, appear to have lost our focus on a number of occasions when we introduce politics into purely development issues.
Our concerns should rather be on how accountable and transparent those implementing the various programmes should be to sustain those programmes for generations to come.
As to whether the government of the day would make politics or electoral gains this is a matter of conjecture.
What is of importance is the welfare of the poor and if the LEAP would reduce the burden on the extremely poor, then everybody is called upon to support it.
It is also essential for the government to clearly explain the benefits to all Ghanaians, particularly the beneficiaries, so that they in turn can preach the good news about the programme.
It is the taxpayer’s money being used for the programme and for this reason all Ghanaians, particularly through their representatives in Parliament, should be interested in the scheme so that those in charge would be accountable to the people of Ghana.
Let’s offer suggestions and constructively criticise the programme, as well as support it with the view to ensuring its success, rather than looking at the programme with a political lens.