Ghana Participates In UN 52 Session For Social Development

Ghana is participating in the 52 Session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD52) which is expected to adopt for the first time in the UN history a resolution on empowerment of people in the context of social development.

The UN has long held empowerment at the core of its development efforts, but the 52nd Commission will make history in explicitly and specifically targeting the issue.

The 52nd Commission is being held on the theme: “Promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all”.

UN Under-Secretary-General Mr. Wu Hongbo during a session at the Commission for Social Development on People’s Empowerment said: “Promoting empowerment is essential not only for social development, but for all three dimensions of sustainable development.

“When people are empowered they are better prepared to take advantage of opportunities. They can create, build, invest and innovate. When people are empowered, they become agents of change”.

Nana Oye Lithur, Ghana’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, told the GNA in an interview that President John Dramani Mahama was committed at creating a socially integrated society in which the extreme poor, vulnerable and excluded are empowered through the provision of Safety Net programmes for national development.

She said one of the major challenges of the implementation of Social Protection in Ghana was “targeting”, that is the identification and selection of beneficiaries.

“This challenge is being addressed through the development and implementation of a Common Targeting Mechanism (CTM) which is a multi-stage approach in identification and selection of beneficiaries.

“The end product is the creation of a single register database to be used by all social interventions to select their beneficiaries. This is meant to enhance coordination and collaboration,” Nana Oye Lithur said.

She said the development of the CTM is collaboration through the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) by the Department of Social Welfare under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The rest are;the Labour Intensive Public Works by the Social Opportunities Project Secretariat under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development; the Exempt Category under the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Pro-Poor interventions for poor peasant farmers including Block Farming under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Nana Oye Lithur said the Ministries: Employment and Labour Relations; Health; Education; Local Government and Rural Development, Food and Agriculture have signed memoranda of understanding with Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as part of the Multi Donor Budget Support to develop and implement the CTM.