The World Bank has released additional funds to support government clear its arrears for two cycles of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project 2 (GPSNP 2).
The ¢42 million released by the World Bank will be used to pay arrears of the 75th and 76th cycles of the LEAP program which is expected to benefit 344,000 beneficiary households. This forms part of the World Bank’s approved $100 million GPSNP 2 in March 2021 to help the Government of Ghana expand and strengthen its social safety net program. The project aims at improving the incomes and productivity of the poor and vulnerable.
“We are happy to support in the interest of beneficiaries to assist government with the LEAP payments to avoid eroding gains made over the years and safeguard beneficiary households’ wellbeing and their resilience to shocks. These payments will be completed in April 2022 and will help cushion GoG in the interim as efforts are made to identify and provide sustainable, and reliable funding for the LEAP program and social protection interventions, in general”.
Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone
The ongoing global economic challenges, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have increased the economic strain domestically, leading to progressive delays in LEAP payments. This has in turn, impacted LEAP beneficiaries, notably the poor and vulnerable who naturally suffer the most.
The LEAP program
The LEAP program is one of Ghana’s flagship social protection programs, initiated in 2008. The program seeks to smoothen consumption of targeted extreme poor households, specifically focusing on the poor within the following categories: orphans and vulnerable children, the elderly (65years and above) severely disabled, and pregnant women or mothers with children under one year.
The program also aims to increase access to basic social services like healthcare through the enrolment on the National Health Insurance Scheme, as well as boost human capital by encouraging beneficiary households to enroll their school-going aged children in school.
Per the GPSNP 2 program design, beneficiary households receive cash grants through electronic payments every two months. The cash benefit sizes differ, depending on how many persons in the household are considered eligible to receive the grant.
The benefit ranges from GH¢32 to GH¢53 per eligible beneficiary, per month. Over the years, the Government of Ghana has progressively increased the program’s beneficiary reach from 1,645 beneficiary households in a few districts at initiation in 2008, to a current reach of 344,023 beneficiary households in all districts across the country.
In the 2022 Budget Statement, Government promised to facilitate the disbursement of the bi-monthly cash grants to beneficiaries and that LEAP beneficiaries assessed to be above the extreme poverty line will be graduated into a productive livelihood inclusion program.
World Bank Assures Gov’t of its Commitment to Social Assistance Program
Government has demonstrated its commitment to the program’s implementation by progressively increasing its contribution to the program. According to the World Bank, government is currently funding approximately 80% of the total funding of the program, with development partners’ support comprising the remaining 20 percent.
Particularly within global economic downturns, the Bretton Woods Institution stated that it is important for the government to identify ring-fenced funding to ensure regular payments of social welfare programs.
The World Bank assured that it remained committed to working with the Government of Ghana, through both technical and financial support, in its agenda to support the poor and vulnerable populations, through needed social assistance programs.
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