Assessing the Stages and Institutional Arrangements for the Implementation of Social Protection Programs: the Case of Ghana

Abstract

Over the past two decades, national governments and international organizations have emphasized on building effective social protection systems as means of poverty alleviation. In Ghana, a number of social protection programs have been initiated. The implementation of these social protection programs has, however, not been without some associated challenges. In this paper, an assessment of the processes involved in the implementation of social protection programs in Ghana have been discussed. Kid, et al (2018) concepts on implementation of social protection programs have been adopted and compared with Ghana’s processes of implementing social protection programs. This was purely a qualitative study that interviewed officials from the respective implementation agencies of the studied programs. The study revealed that, the registration processes of beneficiaries for the selected programs (SFP, NHIS, LEAP, NYEP and Capitation grant) are generally simple, with less complexities. Again, even with variations in the registration processes, they have been decentralized to reach beneficiaries with ease. The implementation of these programs, are however faced with challenges that has to be dealt with to enhance its success. Instances of lack of proper administrative structures; political interferences; and financial limitations are some of the identified challenges