Accra-Ghana, Nov 3, GNA – The Africa Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) and OXFAM have asked the government to conduct research into the implementation of Social Protection (SP) policies.
That, they said, would ensure that SP interventions were targeted at the ideal beneficiaries.
Speaking at the launch of a research on a fiscal policy to reduce inequality based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 10.4.2 indicator, Dr. Kwadwo Danso- Mensah, a lead research consultant, ACEIR, said SP needed to target extremely poor people, who could not afford social services, especially education.
“As much as possible, every government subsidy on the provision of social services should incorporate a targeting framework to allow the poor to benefit more and help improve income distribution,” he said.
The research conducted by ACEIR with support from OXFAM and GIZ assessed the government’s fiscal interventions and welfare policies based on Ghana Living Standards Survey by the Ghana Statistical Services.
Mr Danso- Mensah said the research showed that an SP policy like the Free Senior High School for instance was without any form of targeting.
The report also assessed other social welfare policies, including indirect subsidies on electricity, free school feeding, fertilizer subsidies and transfers to the health and education sectors.
It said the government’s expenditure on health appears evenly distributed to inpatient and outpatient health expenditures.
Mr Danso-Mensah said existing social welfare policies like Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and school feeding programme were pro- poor, stressing the need for their expansion to cover more beneficiaries.
Mr. Kweku Obeng, A Component Manager, GIZ, said the report would help to revisit fiscal policies that perpetuated inequality and redesign comprehensive strategies in improving policies through taxation and government spending.
“Social welfare policies must be well designed, and data driven to address the specific economic and social concerns of the country,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed Anwar Sadat Adam, a representative from OXFAM, said addressing inequality based on the SDG 10.4.3 was necessary for improved development.
