There are times when one wonders if Ghana is really serious about development. This is because all the problems the country is facing are not new to the world and for this matter, we should not be going round trying to fix things that have been fixed by others centuries ago. All we need to do is to learn from these past experiences. As they say, no need to re-invent the wheel!
This means that we should not be struggling with poverty alleviation which is eating at the country’s social fabric fast and all that one can see are policies that are not providing any results.
A report by the UK based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), defines poverty as a term “that concentrates on those who have the least money or other resources or, is a situation of extreme disadvantage experienced at the bottom of the social and economic scale.” It also says poverty is more than being at the bottom of the income scale; it describes individuals and families who have inadequate resources to secure what is deemed a reasonable, or expected, standard of living within a given country.
Poverty alleviation is therefore, as stated in Wikipedia, “a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.” As a country, we need to put in place such economic policies that will help provide some relief to those who need to be uplifted. In addition, we need to show a human face in tackling the problems of those who are poor.
There may be those who may think that poverty is caused by laziness. That is not totally true because as a child of the slums of Nima, l have seen the poverty cycle at work and how it has affected a large section of our population. Therefore, we need to work seriously if we are not to increase the already large number of poverty stricken people in the country.
Let no one shout the word “LEAP” otherwise known as, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty at me. It has not helped and is not likely to provide the intended solutions because the root cause of poverty is not being tackled by this programme. Besides, as a programme, it was not properly thought out because it is supported by donors. Therefore, what happens when the donors pull out?
We have also not taken the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) seriously and it is almost collapsing. Instead of looking at what has worked against it, there are some who are looking at it as a political failure that must be condemned. Others also are praying that no matter what is put into it, the NHIS should not succeed.
Over the past decade or so, what has also been the bane of the Scheme is not getting the right people to work there. In fact, it has become a political zone where only people who have the right political connections are sent to work and not those with the right competence.
The truth is, it is not easy to fight poverty and history has proved it. If it were that simple, England would have found a way out long ago. The fact is, from about 1800 when England enacted the Poor Laws to fight poverty, the phenomenon has proved that it takes determination and political will by those in authority to find answers to what causes poverty and then go on to tackle it.
Slogans would not wish poverty away and in the same way, half-baked programmes will not prevent it. Admittedly, no matter what, we shall always have poor people in society. However, it is important that those unfortunate to be labelled as such are not left on their own. We need to understand that the more poor people we grow as a nation, the likelihood that we increase the number of people who will take to crime. Therefore, poverty alleviation is more of a national security issue.
One way of tackling the issue is not to dream of programmes and then sell them as if that is all it takes to cure a national disease. The government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme can help in a way, but it means that every hindrance that will be in the way of this laudable initiative should be removed.
In the first place, we need to find out how to make land available to the people without which no one can undertake any farming project. In addition, provision of inputs must be made at the right time and roads taken care off so that produce will not rot on the farm. Finally, food processing units should be encouraged so that those who plant do not become frustrated after their first harvest.
This is due to the fact that research into poverty alleviation has shown that the agriculture sector provides a quick way of lifting people out of this life’s quagmire. Among other things, some writers have suggested that raising farm incomes is at the core of the anti-poverty effort as three quarters of the poor today are farmers. This being so, it comes to reason that those who want to farm must be given the land. We should not allow the situation where some farmers have become slaves to land owners who cheat them and thus continue to perpetuate poverty.
Web-based sources say, a 2012 study suggested that new varieties of chickpea benefited Ethiopian farmers in the fight to alleviate poverty. The study assessed the potential economic and poverty impact of 11 improved chickpea varieties, released by the national agricultural research organisation of Ethiopia, in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, (ICRISAT).
The researchers estimated that using the varieties was likely to bring about a total benefit of $111 million for 30 years with consumers receiving 39 per cent of the benefit and producers 61 per cent. They expected the generated benefit to lift more than 0.7 million people (both producers and consumers) out of poverty.
What this means is that we in Ghana must also look for crops that will provide the way out for the rural poor. We must not just be talking about farming without any strategy to follow because if we go on this route, we will achieve nothing.
The same writers on the subject have also drawn a link between improving water management and poverty alleviation. They argue that with better water management, farmers can improve productivity and potentially move beyond subsistence-level farming, adding that during the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, irrigation was a key factor in unlocking Asia’s agricultural potential and reducing poverty. These are lessons we can learn from to push the government’s agenda. It will however, be unfortunate if we should concentrate on propaganda and do nothing.
It is not enough to be shouting from the roof-tops that since its inception in 2008, the LEAP Programme has expanded from 1,645 beneficiary households in 21 districts to 213,044 beneficiary households in 216 districts. What every Ghanaian would like to see is a national programme that will succeed in reducing poverty so that the government would not have to look for money to pay out to the less privileged.
By 2018 our target should not be ensuring “350,000 extremely poor and vulnerable households are covered under LEAP,” we should be talking about the number of people that have been helped to come out of the poverty cycle.
Perspectives
…With Francis Kokutse