Abstract
Global debates on social protection have raised concerns about the appropriateness of the targeting approach for better inclusion. This study contributes to these debates by exploring the specific challenges associated with the targeting mechanism adopted by the Ghana Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme within the Upper West Regional programme district of Wa Municipality of Ghana. Qualitative data on beneficiaries’ perceptions and experiences with the LEAP programme were collected through in-depth interviews with 30 LEAP beneficiaries and key informant interviews with three LEAP implementers. The findings reveal widespread perceptions of inclusion errors associated with the targeting approach adopted by LEAP. These perceived inclusion errors are as a result of lack of transparency in the handling of procedures, political interference in the selection process and poor data on household’s poverty statuses. Unintended consequences of the approach include poverty-labeling, stigmatization and envy of beneficiaries leading to hatred and conflicts which are capable of destroying social cohesion in rural beneficiary communities. A sense of beneficiary powerlessness to question the ‘ills’ in the operations of programme is also a challenge inherent in the targeting approach. To ensure effective targeting, there is the need for education to be provided on the purpose, selection process and benefits of the programme, particularly, at the community level. There is also the need to strengthen the monitoring of the selection process. It is important that civil society organizations provide complementary interventions to empower beneficiaries to demand for their entitlements from the programme.Keywords: Social Protection, Cash Transfers, Targeting Approach, Challenges, Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty, Ghana
Highlights
Social protection has widely been recognized as a means of overcoming social exclusion and promoting poverty reduction (Pierson, 2007)
The key findings that emerged from the analysis of data on perceptions and experiences of Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) beneficiaries and corroborated by local level programme implementers and monitors are described under the following themes: perceptions on beneficiaries’ selection, beneficiaries’ awareness of their entitlements from the programme, uses of the cash received by beneficiaries, and unintended consequences of targeting, manifesting in a low perceived image of beneficiaries and their powerlessness to question the adequacy of benefits, poverty-labeling, envy and stigmatization of beneficiaries
Those who openly expressed doubts about the transparency of the selection process emphasised that they did not understand why some of the people who were initially selected by the Community LEAP Implementation Committee (CLIC) at the community level were not included in the final lists of beneficiaries
Summary
Social protection has widely been recognized as a means of overcoming social exclusion and promoting poverty reduction (Pierson, 2007). Available literature shows that the poor in society, which can be found at the individual, household, group and neighborhood levels, are those who are often faced with the highest risk of exclusion from some components of social security interventions (Muddiman, 1999a; Muddiman, 1999b; Pierson, 2007). Social exclusion and poverty are often mutually reinforcing to impact negatively on the disadvantaged in society. Mounting evidence that well-designed social transfers can contribute to poverty reduction is appealing to development economists and policymakers (Devereux & Wheeler, 2007: 1).
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