MoGCSP partners development agencies to mobilize funds for social service delivery

The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has held its fourth MoGCSP 2022 Summit to mobilize funds to enable it exercise its mandate of supporting the vulnerable in society effectively.

The objective of the summit is to have a broad understanding and agreement on the key priority issues facing the financing of social protection and child protection programmes among others.

The summit under the theme; “Strengthening Resource Mobilization for Effective Social Service Delivery”, was to allow key stakeholders to share their ideas on how to mobilize revenue to complement social sector programmes that do not get enough funding from the Government of Ghana and also help provide social services to low-income families who are not on the already existing programmes.

According to the ministry, the move comes at the back of the economic situation that has compelled the government to take stringent measures limiting resources available to sectors including the gender ministry.

Speaking at the summit on behalf of the caretaker minister Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Chief Director for the ministry Mrs. Afisah Zakariah said, despite the current challenges, the ministry has chalked a number of successes aimed at strengthening the policy and legal environment for gender equality, promoting, and protecting the welfare of children, women, the aged, persons living with disability (PWD’s), and other vulnerable groups.

These include providing hot nutritious meals to 3,448,065 pupils in 10,832 public basic schools for every school-going day, increased household beneficiaries under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme (LEAP) from 1, 155, 611, to 1.5million, established eight Domestic Violence Response Centres and supported over eight hundred victims of Domestic and Gender-based violence.

The ministry through its partners have rescued and provided care and counselling for 650 victims and survivors of human trafficking, sensitized 3,434,532 people including children and adults on various child protection issues using the Child Protection toolkit. It has also reached 334,379 people through various social media platforms.

Also, a progressive compilation of disaggregated data on 12,667 children with disabilities, 103 Graduates with disabilities from Tertiary Institutions, and 30 Graduates with disabilities from Tertiary Institutions having employable skills in the extractive sector among others.

She said, however, the ministry could have expanded its reach if it had more resources at its disposal to provide effective and efficient social service delivery.

Deputy Minister-designate for MoGCSP and Chairperson of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender and Children, Hon. Francisca Oteng, on her part, said the summit is very key in helping the committee to be abreast with current happenings to be able to push harder in Parliament for social service delivery issues to be on the front burner for the needed attention and possible redress.

She said Ghana has made significant investments in key social protection and child protection programmes and this had led to achieving impressive improvements in the lives of children and their families.

“However, the prevailing economic conditions being experienced not only in Ghana but worldwide makes it very expedient to discuss and find workable ways in which women and children can be cushioned. Not only that but more importantly, how those interventions can be financed and sustained,” she stated.

She commended government for the continuous implementation of various programmes including the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme, School Feeding Programme, Free Senior High School Education, among other interventions despite the economic challenges to help the poor which women and children form the majority.

Representatives at the summit include development partners, banks, government agencies, NGOs CSOs, academia, the media, private sector among others.