The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program in Ghana managed by the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) is a cash transfer initiative designed to alleviate poverty and improve living standards among the most vulnerable populations. The program’s primary objectives are to reduce poverty by increasing and smoothing consumption among extremely poor households, promote access to services and opportunities, such as healthcare and education, and to Improve household consumption and nutrition, particularly among children, the elderly, and people with severe disabilities.
On the basis of the official communique from the LEAP Management Secretariat (LMS) to the constitute LEAP Reassessment Team in Metropolitan, Municipal, and District instructing them to engage the LEAP Reassessment Committee and Community Focal Persons (CFPs) on the Reassessment exercise which have tentatively slated to commence on the stipulated date.
In compliance with the official communique, the LEAP Reassessment Team of Atiwa East District Assembly engaged the LEAP Community Focal Persons (CFPs) on the date of January 10, 2025, at the Assembly Hall with the purpose of sharing with them the rationale, the objective of LEAP Reassessment, and their roles during the exercise.
Some of the highlights shared by the Reassessment Team during the event with the audience were how the program kickstarted at Atiwa East District for the first time in the year 2016 after the establishment of the District, and how beneficiaries were registered onto the program. Some of the Focal Persons began to share their experiences back then, eliciting on how several questionnaires were administered to the beneficiaries and some responses that came out.
According to the experiences shared by the Focal Persons, some of the respondents during the exercise to the administered questionnaires were not the exact reflection of their true state and as a result were not eligible to be enrolled unto to program. Major flaws addressed by the Reassessment Team based on the Focal Persons comments during the engagement were incorrect provision of names, misinterpretations of the administered questionnaires, and false provision of information with the conscious eagerness to be enrolled on the program.
However, upon the major flaws addressed, the Reassessment Team edged the Focal Persons to be committed, to remember the sacrifices, and reaffirmed the promises they made to the beneficiaries when it comes to the LEAP program implementation.
The Community Focal Persons were also abreast with the possible outcomes of the reassessment exercise which is to either remain, graduate, or exit beneficiaries from the program. These possible outcomes solely lie on the responses of the beneficiaries to the various questions that will be put before them by the outsourced third-party data collection firms (in this case, it may be JMK or ESOKO). Regarding this, the Focal Persons must effectively collaborate with the third-party data collection firms, the Reassessment Team, and the Reassessment Committee for the effective conduct of the exercise, and to make sure that all qualified beneficiaries are enrolled in the program.