Social inclusion via conditional cash transfer in Ghana: an investigation into the livelihood empowerment against poverty programme in Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana.

Abstract

The term social exclusion has been employed to explain a culmination of negative processes of social relations shaped by gender, spatial, economic, political, socio economic, environmental and cultural circumstances and ideologies. Despite the economic gains Ghana has made since the fourth Republic, spatial and social segments of the Ghanaian society have not benefited from the trickledown effect of growth and could be classified as socially excluded. This research sets out to assess the contribution of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), a conditional cash transfer policy intervention against social exclusion in the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana. The data source involved primary data collection by way of in-depth interview of 40 beneficiaries in 8 out of the 14 beneficiary communities. Key informants involved in the management of the intervention were interviewed. The primary data was complemented with secondary data and information on the LEAP programme. The research revealed that the LEAP programme has been contributing fairly substantially to alleviating the plight of the vulnerable and the excluded. It was however observed that the programme requires some reforms with regard to increasing the amount of money involved in the cash transfer and effective organisational capacity building for proper monitoring and evaluation of the conditionalities attached to the cash transfer. Further research into how conditional cash transfer could be used as an avenue for micro investment and wealth creation is recommended