Ghana's Poverty Rate Drops 23 Percent

Much of this progress was between 1992–2005

By Benson Afful

The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Mr. Kodjo Mensah-Abrampah, has said Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy made strides as the country’s poverty rate dropped to 23 percent in the last 27 years. Much of this progress was between 1992 to 2005, where the rate of poverty dropped to 25 percent.

The country did not do much to reduce poverty between 2005 to 2017, a period where the country discovered oil in commercial quantity in addition to its existing natural resources.

Speaking to the B&FT in an interview at a workshop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA) on 'Strengthening the Use of Poverty Analysis to Achieve SDGs 1 and 2,' he said between 1992 up to 2005 the focus was on how to improve the situation of the poor as well as investing in areas which are related to the poor such as agriculture, livestock development, and also providing the necessary support in terms of extension officers for agriculture production.

The provided space was for long-neglected to be able to put themselves into the economy and the development ladder. 'Ghana Poverty Reduction 1, 2' are some of the policies targeted at the poor, and those who ordinarily will have been victims of poverty, were brought in. Programs on Social Investment Fund, HIPC program, Youth in Agriculture and Women in Agriculture, these were the means to harness and also bring in the poor.

The introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the School Feeding Program were done to bring in the poor into accessing some of these facilities. All contributed to the development.

A conscious means of responding to poverty in a coordinated manner - NDPC was at the peak of coordinating all those processes that related to reducing poverty and working together with other ministries.

Responding to why the country couldn’t do much in terms of poverty reduction after 2005, the NDPC boss said, somewhere along the emphasis on poverty reduction lost its way and therefore the efforts where not that coordinated like in the past, when we made strides.

The NDPC boss said there is an expansion to some of these programs, which helped the country to reduce poverty such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program. The Free SHS as a means of completing an education, and, to develop the skills and knowledge, and the ability, to be able to get employment.

In this regard, the government is going to tackle issues related to gender and social protection. There is a conscious effort to make poverty not linked to the income-earning population.

A study carried out by the NDPC and UNICEF, looked at the issue of child poverty.