The Wenchi Municipal Implementation working Committee for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) has held meeting with Stakeholders on LEAP programmes and related activities.The Six (6) Member Municipal LEAP Implementation Committee is chaired by the Municipal Coordinating Director with Municipal Social Welfare Officer as Secretary. Members are the Municipal Information Officer, Development Planning Officer, Community Development Officer, and Statistical Officer. The Committee is mandated to hold Stakeholder Engagements, carry out Public Sensitization Campaigns, develop and review Training Guidelines for Trainer of Trainees (ToTs), amongst other mandates. Other Cross-Sectoral co-opted Institutional representations to serve on the Committee include Municipal Director of Health – Ghana Health Service (GHS), Municipal Director of Education – Ghana Education Service (GES), Municipal Director of Agriculture – Department of Agriculture, Municipal Scheme Manager – National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Chairman of Social Services Sub-Committee of the Assembly and Representative of Civil Society Organisation/Non Governmental Organisation (CSOs/NGOs) in Social Protection programmes.
The Municipal Information Officer and Director of the Information Services Department (ISD) Mr Stanick Sofel Amuzu Kpodo made the presentation on behalf of the Committee. Questions and views from the participants were appropriately addressed collaboratively from other Committee Members such as Social Welfare Officer Mr Abdulai Ibrahim Jimba, Mr Kumi Kwame Acheaw, Municipal Development Planning Officer Mr Patrick Asomah, Mr Abdul Nazib.
The meeting was to amongst other purposes educate Stakeholders on the achievements and gains made as well as the associated challenges bedeviling the LEAP programme since its inception in 2008 by the then President His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor’s government and expansion of the programme by successive governments such as the then President His Excellency late Professor John Evans Atta-Mills and President His Excellency John Dramani Mahama governments.
The Meeting was to provide Stakeholders with the requisite knowledge on the upcoming Re-Assessment Exercise. Re-assessment is the process of seeking to identify and determine the poverty status and eligibility households that should benefit from the LEAP programme and ultimately reduce Inclusion and Exclusion errors and improve the efficiencies of allocating budget to most vulnerable households. The Re-assessment Exercise has four (4) key outcomes; households to remain on the LEAP programme, households to graduate, households to exit and new entrant households.
As part of the LEAP beneficiary design, beneficiary households are expected to be re-assessed every 4 years to confirm their continuous eligibility. Over the years, there has not been any form of re-assessment. A Team of Technical Experts have been put together to re-assess the LEAP programme. The work of the Re-assessment Team would end after a nationwide rollout and completion of the Exercise. The objectives of the Re-assessment Exercise are; to update the LEAP beneficiary register to ensure that cash grant transfers go to eligible households and respond to poverty levels and household composition. To identify households that will no longer be eligible for LEAP and link them to other complementary services and income generating activity supports.
The overall goal is to improve the LEAP programme’s coverage of extremely poor population in Ghana.
The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme is a Government of Ghana (GoG) cash transfer Social Intervention policy initiative designed to help reduce extreme poverty in the poorest of the poor and vulnerable households. It is a cash started transfer programme that facilitates beneficiaries access to other social services. The programme, managed by the Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection so far covers 350,551 households in 260 Districts in Ghana.
