World Bank to provide additional funding for “Ghana Productive Safety Net Project”
The World Bank, according to Country Director for Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Pierre Laporte, will be providing additional funding to the Phase II of the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP).
The additional funding, Mr Laporte noted, will be to increase benefits and coverage of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) as well as to expand other important social protection programmes.
“I am pleased to announce that through a request from the Ministry of Finance, the World Bank will further support government with additional financing to the GPSNP 2, which will aid increase LEAP benefits and coverage,” he remarked, speaking at the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project Learning Event on Monday, December 12, 2022.
A cumulative amount of $160m, has so far been injected into the first and second phases of the GPSNP.
Since 2010, the World Bank has consistently supported government in its efforts to protect the poor and boost economic growth.
Some efforts by government to protect the poor which have been supported by the World Bank include the $138m Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) and the $160m GPSNP.
These interventions, according to the World Bank, has reached over 2 million poor and vulnerable Ghanaians.
Speaking also at the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project Learning Event themed “Leveraging on Digitization for Effective Social Protection Delivery – The Government Agenda”, was Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Lariba Abudu who averred having a robust and digitised system for social protection delivery helps in the reduction of poverty and inequality.
“We therefore need to invest more and leverage on digitization for effective social protection delivery to close existing coverage gaps and reduce poverty, vulnerability and inequality,” he added.
“Digitalising social protection delivery has the potential to reduce fragmented, isolated social protection interventions thereby linking beneficiaries of social protection intervention to other services and support,” he stated further.
The GPSNP implemented in 2018 through a collaboration between government, the World Bank and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is aimed at enhancing Ghana’s efforts toward eradicating poverty and vulnerability through improved social protection systems and services to citizens, and to strengthen safety net systems that improve the productivity of the extreme poor.
Some interventions of the GPSNP include; productive inclusion activities; labour-intensive public works; livelihood empowerment against poverty (LEAP) cash transfers; social protection systems strengthening including the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR), the Single Window Citizen Engagement Service (SWCES), and development of management information systems and electronic payments platforms.
