EXPERT REVIEW OF THE EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM AND THE COMMENTS FROM STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATIONS ON THE SOCIAL PROTECTION BILL

The Social Protection Directorate under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is organizing a three days’ workshop with stakeholders for consultations on the Draft Social Protection Bill at Sogakope, in the Volta Region from 11th to 13th December, 2019.

The purpose of the Draft Social Protection Bill will provide the legislative authority for social protection in Ghana as well as secure the rights of the vulnerable; guide operation and delivery of programmes; and secure dedicated financing for social protection above partisan considerations.

The rationale for the working session is to discuss the matrix of comments from all consultations on the draft social protection bill, the Explanatory memorandum and the proposed new clauses so as to have a firm position on the final draft of the SP Bill to be submitted to the Attorney General’s Department.

The working session will be used to generate interest and lay a foundation for a support base to advocate for the passage of the Bills and to follow the standard base to apt for these procedures needed to apt credibility for these legal documents.

The overall objectives of the working session is:

To discuss the matrix of the consolidated comments from all key stakeholder consultations on the draft Social Protection Bill, the Explanatory Memorandum and the proposed new clauses so as to have a firm position on the final draft of the SP Bill to be submitted to the Attorney General’s Department.

To meet the requirements set up for the development of national bills.

To generate interest and lay a foundation for a support base to advocate for the passage of the Bills.

Outputs:

Notes from the consultations would be consolidated and shared with the Attorney General to enable further version of the draft bill.

Revised bill to meet requirements set up for the development of national bills.

The bill will have the support base for its passage into law.

The stakeholders output of this workshop could facilitate the submission of the final matrix to the Attorney General’s Department before the end of 2019.

The National Social Protection Policy was formulated and launched in June 2016 to coordinate and provide holistic and coherent social protection in Ghana.

 It was however realized that to sustain the process and assure social protection interventions of reliable and adequate funding, a social protection law would be required.

The law would also explain processes and make actionable, rights of Ghanaians and sanctions to be applied as shall be required.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection embarked on a process of developing inputs for a Social Protection Bill for consideration, professional drafting and submission to the Attorney-General’s Department based on the arguments and in line with international best practice.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Charles Kesse, Director for Research at the Local Government Service with the support of Dr. Rita Owusu-Amankwah, Director  for Social Protection Directorate.

Source: MoGCSP