Fighting extreme poverty in ghana; A stakeholders analysis of the “leap” cash transfer programme

Over the years, alternative approaches at fighting extreme poverty have yielded substantial results among those hardly hit in the world today. The number of people in extreme poverty in the world has declined from 47 percent to 22 percent in 2010. Thus, about less than 700 million people live in extreme poverty today than in 1990. Despite this gain, development and programme financing, management, politics, poor programme design and engineering are still a very big challenge to the acceleration of progress. This paper examines a stakeholder’s view of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme in Ghana. The study revealed that the introduction of the LEAP programme has been lauded by both implementation and beneficiary stakeholders. However, lack of monitoring indicators, inadequate funding as well as institutional bottlenecks have been the greatest challenge to the smooth running of the programme. The study recommends the provision of a framework to institutionalised social protection interventions and programmes in Ghana through a synergy of institutional competence, political will and legal support systems. The study also recommends the design of clear and measurable indicators for effective monitoring and evaluation of the programme to enhance its sustainability.