The District Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Implementation Committee (DLIC), held its maiden meeting to spell out its functions and discuss its activities for the year. It would also monitor and manage beneficiaries, to enjoy maximum benefits from the LEAP policy.
The District Coordinating Director, (DCD) Mr. Kwadwo Bour Gyamfi, who is also the chairman of the committee, tasked all members to contribute significantly to the success of the policy. He was hopeful that the implementation of the committee’s activities would eliminate the inclusion and exclusion errors associated with the LEAP policy.
Some of the functions of the DLIC are; sensitization of communities on social protection activities, facilitate the information of the community social protection committee in selected communities, training of community social protection committees, supervise the administration of the proxy means test questionnaire, and community validation among others.
For its activities, the committee would organize community sensitization on the various beneficial packages to create the necessary awareness and ensure inclusivity. The beneficiaries in the communities would be sensitized on the health, agricultural and educational packages for them.
Some of the packages for beneficiaries are; free enrollment unto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), inclusion in the School Feeding Programme for school going beneficiaries, free community health check -up by health officials and free distribution of fertilizers from the district agricultural department to households interested in farming.
The DLIC would also spearhead the first LEAP re-assessment, using it as a baseline data for progression and exiting of some beneficiaries from the policy. Beneficiaries who attain the economic empowerment within a certain period would be exited to make fiscal space for other extremely vulnerable in the District. The LEAP households would be reassessed every four (4) years to determine its poverty status and eligibility to remaining on the policy.
The DLIC and reassessment has become necessary because since the inception of the policy in 2008, there has not been a single reassessment to determine the poverty status of the beneficiaries. Therefore, the reassessment seeks to unearth the households that would no longer be eligible to remain on the cash grant, and link them to other complementary social services.
Secondly, the reassessment would objectively, bring to light issues of transparency, consistency and fairness for all extremely poor household to enroll or remain on the policy. In totality, the reassessment would facilitate efficient and effective resource allocation to the most vulnerable in the society.
The committee also introduced the Community Focal Persons (CFP’s) resident in each community to assist with the identification, authentication and enrollment of orphans, aged without support, the vulnerable and severely disabled in the District.
The district has forty-nine (49) communities and had assigned forty (40) focal persons to these communities to work directly with the beneficiaries. The district social welfare department would organize a training session for these focal persons for the task ahead.
According to the Director Of The Social Welfare And Community Development, Mr. Philip Dotse, the District has enrolled four hundred and thirty-two (432) households and one thousand, six hundred and fifty-nine beneficiaries.
DIO
21st January 2025