SOCIEUX collaborates in the development of a social protection policy in Ghana

 SOCIEUX, the Social Protection European Union Expertise in Development Cooperation Facility, in which the FIIAPP collaborates, worked with the Ghanaian ministry in the development of a protection social policy.

With the objective of evaluating the situation of social protection interventions and contributing the experience of the EU in policy design in this area, an expert mission in Ghana took place in February.

The team collaborated in an evaluation of the current situation of the country’s social protection services, advocated for the adoption of a holistic approach to social protection in the future policy, and presented recommendations for future collaborations.

The SOCIEUX experts, from France, Italy and Germany, held meetings with the main actors in the provision of social protection, which helped them get a better understanding of the Ghanaian system.

One of theweaknesses detected was a lack of coordination in social protection services between the State, local government agencies and social protection agencies. In this respect, the experts provided technical contributions on organizational issues in terms of coordination and decentralization or deconcentration of the provision of social protection services.

Managementof social protection at different levels was also discussed, as were issues such as identification, the registry, statistics, evaluation and inspection. As a result, initiatives were proposed for developing a better system for managing information, which would include a unified social registry system with data on pension and health funds, a solid evaluation system and statistics on social protection. In addition, theneed for legal and regulatory codes became clear.

According to the experts, the exchange of experiences and consultation will contribute to preparing a social protection policy for Ghana and will promote capacity building for managing it. The analysis, proposals and examples presented were very well received and contributed to changing people’s perception of social protection.

The mission fully met its objective of beginning to optimize the efficiency and coordination of social protection in Ghana.