She said social policies were important to ensure the wellbeing of the ordinary citizen, though some may think that such policies may take away economic policies and development.

“But indeed you could say economic development is underpinned by social policy, so this is why, first, we have to focus on social policy and reap more significant benefits...”

 Prof. Oduro said this during the Second International Conference organised by the CSPS on the theme; “Financing Social Policy in the 21st Century,” in Accra on Tuesday.

 The two-day conference is to provide the space for both policymakers and academia as well as deliberate on the challenges of social policy financing.Prof. Oduro said the theme for the conference had been inspired by past research from institutions whose findings and conclusions left one in no doubt of the complexity of mobilising resources to sustain social wellbeing.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unequivocally called for social transformation that left no one behind. “Creating conditions for gainful employment is not enough. Citizens expect to be able to access quality education and health services, safe drinking water and safe accommodation,” Prof. Oduro said.

“We are hoping that if we talk about the political economy of social policies, it would inform NGOs, development partners, and governments on changing their perception about social policies.”

Dr Kathleen Beegle, a World Bank Programme Leader for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, said Ghana had increased the number of social policy programmes with the implementation of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, the Free Senior High School, and the National Household Registry among others.

She, however, noted that there were some perceptions about social policies that were driving away governments and private organisations from investing in those areas adding that these needed to be corrected. “Governments and people like us at the World Bank must know that contrary to the perception that social policies were ‘handouts to the poor’ and the ‘poor were lazy,’ social policies yield long term impacts better than investing in other avenues,” she said.

She said to attract investors, civil society and non-governmental organisations had to repackage their social policy ideas and modules and  make them politically convenient for governments.Jenn Yablonski, a UNICEF Social Policy Programmes Officer, said government would have to review its social policy delivery and implementation processes to make the impacts noticeable.

She said governments must learn more efficient methodologies used in other countries, replace delivery systems with technology to avoid frauds and track the final destinations of monies invested into social policy programmes.

Prof Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarkoh, a Tutor of Criminal Law at the University of Ghana, and the Chairperson of the programme, called on stakeholders to take social policy issues seriously to prevent them from becoming “social evils”.