The plan is expected to assist the ministry to spearhead the promotion of rights and welfare of children, persons with disability, gender equality and women empowerment, as well as strengthen and harmonise social protection interventions, that better target the poor and vulnerable families.

Divided into eight focus areas with corresponding strategic goals, the plan also seeks to harmonise social protection interventions that target the poor and vulnerable families.

It also provides financial analysis and projects GH¢ 220,269,049 as the cost of the execution of the strategic objectives for the planned period, 2017 - 2021.

The document, in consistency with Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution, is aligned with the thematic areas of the country’s medium-term national development policy framework and Agenda 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution expressly guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination, obligations for ensuring the well-being of all citizens and protecting people from vulnerability and destitution by providing adequate means of livelihood and public assistance.

Focus areas

Launching the document at a ceremony in Accra yesterday, the sector Minister, Nana Oye Lithur, said the plan was intended to assist the ministry to redefine its strategic direction, policy goals and objectives.

The eight focus areas of the plan are gender equality and women’s development, child rights promotion and development, social protection and development, domestic violence and human trafficking.

The rest are research, information and data management, performance measurement, monitoring and evaluation, education and sensitisation and financial mobilisation and organisation support services.

Financial gap

According to Nana Lithur, the focus of the plan was on strategic issues identified as a result of detailed situational analysis which covered the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the ministry.

She mentioned weak inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration on gender, children and social protection issues, weak, unreliable and untimely data for planning, policy making and programming, monitoring and evaluation and insufficient funding as some challenges that informed the formulation of the plan.

She said the successful implementation of the plan would depend on the availability of both human and financial resources, adding that the financial analysis indicated that the government’s projected budget allocation for the plan period was GH¢ 116, 595,072 while the ministry projected GH¢ 220, 269,049, resulting in a financial gap of GH¢ 103,673,977.

Collaborate

Nana Lithur urged the ministry’s development partners, private sector and civil society to collaborate with the ministry for the effective implementation of the plan.

“It is our hope that we will be able to achieve the objectives outlined in the plan to better improve the lives of women, children, vulnerable and the excluded in all sectors of our development,” she added.

The minister further commended the staff of the ministry and other agencies under it for their hard work towards the progress of the ministry.

In a solidarity message, a Social Protection Specialist at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Mr Luigi Peter Ragmo, commended the ministry and added that the UNICEF would align its strategy to the ministry’s plan.

The ministry also used the occasion to launch its Friday cloth.