The attention of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has been drawn to a story on www.ghanaweb.com on Tuesday, 24 November 2015 alleging that the people of Gomoa Central “had been denied the LEAP initiative by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection”.

The story, attributed to Hon. Rachel Appoh, MP for Gomoa Central further claimed, that per “the District LEAP initiative poverty ranking”, “Gomoa Central is second” and so the people do not understand why they should be denied that initiative.

The Ministry would like to put on record that it has not denied the people of Gomoa Central the LEAP programme as the Hon. Member of Parliament for the area implied by her statement on Kasapa FM.

The LEAP Management Unit (LMU) of the Department of Social Development under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection would like to use this platform to provide information and clarify the targeting process and selection of beneficiaries for the LEAP programme.

Selecting communities for the programme is scientifically done and not at anyone’s behest. The targeting process begins with geographical targeting which involves the selection of a region, district and then community. This is based on a poverty map of Ghana generated and provided by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and NOT the District LEAP initiative poverty ranking as Hon. Rachel Appoh sought to say. The poverty map ranks all the regions, districts and communities according to their poverty status.

Households in the communities are selected on the following basis: They must have Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), the elderly 65 years and above without any form of support and the severely disabled without productive capacity.

The administration of the Proxy-Means Test (PMT) questionnaire to the selected households by enumerators is one major step in the targeting process. Data from the questionnaires are then entered into the LEAP computerised data management system and scored to determine which households are eligible or qualify for the programme.

Because of these rigorous processes in selecting geographical areas and beneficiary households, a study by the World Bank in 2010, identified the LEAP program as the most effectively targeted social protection programme in Ghana.
The LEAP Management Unit does not circumvent this time-tested targeting process.

The 2015 plan for increasing LEAP beneficiaries is to cover all districts by December 2015. All regions, districts and communities that qualify for LEAP shall be placed on the programme after the targeting processes have been duly complied with. The LEAP Management Unit would like to assure the public that the Ministry is working in the interest of all Ghanaians.