We need to effectively monitor social interventions - Otiko Djaba

The Minister of Gender, Child and Social Protection, Ms. Otiko Afisah Djaba, has underlined the need to effectively monitor the implementation of the various social interventions introduced by the government to achieve the intended outcomes.

She indicated that it was important to go the extra mile to make sure that the right people benefitted.

She said this during an engagement with members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Social Protection in Koforidua.

Her Ministry has been allocated GH?250 million in this year’s budget and out of the figure GH?200 million would go into the School Feeding Programme and the rest for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the other interventions.

Ms. Afisah Djaba sought to use the platform to lobby the parliamentarians to increase the budgetary allocation to her ministry to reach out to more people. She said to ensure transparency, Members of Parliament (MPs) would now be informed of the disbursement of LEAP in their constituencies to enable them to closely follow the process.

The decision followed complaints by the MPs that they had been excluded from the implementation of the programme.

Ms. Afisah Djaba pointed out that the interventions to empower the poor and vulnerable in the society were investments - helping to improve the purchasing power of the poor and make them important players in the nation’s economic development.

She spoke of the determination of her ministry to get the Affirmative Action Bill re-submitted to Parliament for passage into law.

She announced that it had submitted a proposal to Cabinet to waive the fee paid for birth registration of children between one and 18 years.

Mr. Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, MP for Efutu, called for strong engagement of the sector ministries with the Parliamentary Select Committees to get laws passed that met the aspirations of everybody.

Ms. Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe Gyansah, Deputy Minority Whip, appealed to her colleague MPs to pass the Bill on Affirmative Action when it was brought to the House to give all the opportunity to actively participate in national development.