Accra, Aug. 18, GNA - Government is developing a system called "Common Targeting Mechanism (CTM)" aimed at providing indicators to identify potential beneficiaries for its pro-poor initiatives. The goal of the CTM is to enhance the efficiency, coordination and sustainability of Government's pro-poor initiatives or social protection interventions, such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), by eliminating duplication of activities by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, made these known at a Ministerial briefing on the CTM in Accra on Wednesday.

When finally developed, a sub-technical committee on social welfare would be created in all the District Assemblies to properly coordinate Government's pro-poor initiatives to ensure that they make real impact on the lives of the beneficiaries, he said. To this end, a technical committee comprising representatives of development partners and five Ministries that ran Government's pro-poor initiatives had been constituted and begun meeting in Accra to develop the CTM, which would be ready by January next year. The Ministries are: Employment and Social Welfare (MESW), Health, Education, Food and Agriculture and Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), while the development partners comprise the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund, UK Department for International Development and the World Bank's Ghana Office. Mr Sekyere cited LEAP (MESW), Indigents of National Health Insurance Scheme (MOH), School Feeding Programme and Labour Intensive Public Works (MLGRD), Free School Uniform and Exercises Book Programme (MOE) and Block Farming (MOFA) as some of the pro-poor initiatives being implemented by Government.

"The CTM will also provide the needed synergy to collectively achieve our targets and enhance the well-being of the vulnerable and excluded", he said.

Mr Sekyere said the implementation of the CTM was one of the targets under the Multi-Donor Budgetary Support/Progress Assessment Framework, which the Government was obliged to fulfill by the end of March 2012.

He said in line with its social democratic credentials, Government was committed to extending the social safety nets to cover as many people as possible and charged the technical committee to do a diligent job to enhance the living conditions of the unfortunate, extremely poor, vulnerable and excluded.

Mr Mawutor Ablo, Deputy Director in-charge of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) at MESW, said the development of the CTM became necessary because of the 93difficulties in correctly identifying one's status as poor or extremely poor, since indicators of poverty differ between regions and can be easily manipulated by households".

He gave the assurance that the technical committee would employ the right techniques to develop the CTM to benefit the vulnerable in the country.