The Department of Social Welfare, Nkoranza South Municipal convened the Inaugurations of the LEAP Assessment Team to empower stakeholders, that is, Municipal LEAP Implementing Committee and Community Focal Persons (MLIC and CFPs) to enable them supervise and Coordinating the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme that seeks to reduce extreme poverty by smoothening consumption and facilitating access to other social services among the extremely poor and vulnerable households in Ghana.
The Inaugurations Assessment Team includes the following heads of department: the Municipal Coordinating Director as the Chairman, the Municipal Chief Executive Ex-Officio Member, Information Service Department, Social Welfare as the Secretary, the Planning Department, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, the Statistics Department, the National Health Insurance Service, the Non-Governmental Organization and Social Services Sub-Committee Chairman.
The LEAP programme which is being managed by the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) through the LEAP Management Secretariat (LMS), started in the year 2008 and currently covers 350,551 households across 260 Districts in Ghana. The programme has involved incrementally and aimed at enrolling all extremely poor household in Ghana, comprising poor households with orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), the aged without support, persons with severe disability without productive capacity and pregnant women with children under one (1) year of age.
The stakeholder’s highlighted to members that beneficiaries on the programme are eligible or not, for the benefits received since the inception of the programme in 2008 and also the reassessment exercise which will soon be rolled out in the municipality.
The pilot reassessment exercise in the selected Municipal was aimed at providing an equal opportunity for all extremely poor households and ensure that the cash grants go to the most vulnerable households by updating the database in response to the changes in poverty levels, household composition, and programme design. During the Inauguration, the LEAP Management Secretariat is therefore required to put in measures to ensure effective execution of the exercise through the establishment across Nkoranza South Municipality.