• GENDER, CHILDREN AND SOCIAL PROTECTION

    SDG 1

Community-based Health and Social Protection Assistants (CoHSPA) Programme

MPA is collaborating with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to consolidate social protection interventions in Ghana. MPA and MoGCSP have created CoHSPA similar to Community Health Workers (CHWs) to implement social intervention services including: support to the aged, the rural poor, women, as well as children on non-communicable diseases (NCD) surveillance, HIV support services, health education and monitoring services. The program will be inaugurated in 2019.

The Weaning Kaya Project 

In 2019 MPA is partnering the MoGCSP in strengthening the implementation of the Kaya Trade with the introduction of electronic systems. Kayayei are a very vulnerable group of migrant women who work as female head porters in markets in urban centers and are predisposed to all forms of violence. The MoGCSP seeks to regulate the Kaya trade in collaboration with the private sector to have entry and exit points to prevent minors and the aged from entering the trade. The goal of the Kaya project is to regulate the trade and provide social protection systems to support the “Kayayei”.

In view of this MPA is partnering the MGCSP to ensure that all “Kayayei” undergo electronic registration and screening.  Qualified persons will be issued with ID cards with Unique numbers that allow them to operate in a particular market under supervision. Exit strategies such as the “Back to School Project” or learning of a trade to enable such people to improve their lives will be implemented. The “Back to School” project will also enable them to take good advantage of the free SHS programme.

The Weaning Kaya project (TWKP), is created to address the soaring rate of the influx of head porters from northern Ghana down south with the aim of empowering the teaming youth so they could add positively to the social-economic and sustainable development of the nation.

The Weaning Kaya Project has the potential of equipping exiting Kaya traders with enhanced training and entrepreneurial skills to ply sustainable trade and profession.

Improving the School Feeding Programme, with online registration of caterers

The Ghana School feeding program (GSFP) has been in implementation since 2005. Over the years GSFP has been saddled with a lot of problems and as a result of this the MGCSP is introducing interventions to restructure the program. MPA is providing technical assistance in the restructuring process.

Interventions being introduced to the GSFP includes tracking of the GSFP, monitoring (Electronic Monitoring System for School Attendance) to ensure value for money – this will ensure that Government is paying for the actual number of students in schools. Registering all caterers electronically and linking them to their respective schools, improvement in the electronic payment system, tracking the performance of caterers using electronic tracking system to estimate and validate payments.

The e-platform will make it easy to apply to become a caterer with the Ghana School Feeding Programme; monitor whether or not caterers cook and take other data such as number of students fed, hygiene situation, timeliness of meals etc.; monitor essential indicators, and enables Supervisors to validate and confirm cooking activities.

The e-platform will make it easy to apply to become a caterer with the Ghana School Feeding Programme; monitor whether or not caterers cook and take other data such as number of students fed, hygiene situation, timeliness of meals etc.; monitor essential indicators, and enables Supervisors to validate and confirm cooking activities.

Domestic Workers Improvement Programme

The Domestic Workers Improvement Program (DWiP) seeks to professionalize and formalize domestic work in the country. The goal of the DWiP program is to help strengthen the social protection services by professionalizing and formalizing the provision of home care service and ensuring that domestic workers are working under safe acceptable conditions and receiving fair wages. Under the DWiP, all domestic workers, agencies and persons desirous of performing domestic work will be registered on a platform, trained on proper ethics in performing domestic tasks and care for children among others and licensed.

Drawing on its experience in CHW, ICT and other programs/projects, MPA will offer Technical Assistance for the smooth implementation of the programme.

Womenpreneurship

The Ghana Womenpreneurship Project (GWP) seeks to use unique approaches to provide large-scale access to local solutions that can instantly encourage unemployed/marginalized youth to a start a business within in a period of one-two months. Under the GWP, a one-stop space that will offer practical skills training, innovative experimentation and educational tools for local simple solutions for self-employment and improved standard of living for unemployed/marginalized youth living in both rural and urban centres.

The goal of the project is to reduce unemployment among women in Ghana (both rural and urban) by harnessing local innovations to make them self-reliant. A baseline assessment will be carried out across the country to identify local solutions, availability of raw materials and the market for production. Local solutions are enterprises/business that can be started within a specific geographical setting, using affordable and locally acquired resources. The women will be provided skills on the following local solutions which are in support to achieving the SDGs.