Galvanise support for the Ghana National Household Registry: Traditional leaders urged

Chiefs and Queemothers in the Upper East Region have been called upon to galvanise support for the household enumeration of the Ghana National Household Registry, GNHR.

At a stakeholder meeting held in Bolgatanga, the National Coordinator of the Ghana Social Opportunities Projects, GSOP, Robert Austin said the single registry using a comprehensive database registration process will facilitate the coordination of existing social protection interventions and serves as a model to ensure effective planning and implementation of poverty reduction in Ghana.

Mr. Austin further urged the targeted communities to take advantage of the exercise to enable them migrate out of poverty.
The next phase of the exercise is said to cover the other seven administrative regions of the country. Isaac Asare has more. 


Background

The Ghana National Household Registry, GNHR, is a unit under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection with the mandate to establish a single national household register, which is a database for poor and vulnerable households.

The registration process which began in the Upper West Region is considered a key instrument for deepening social protection in the country, using a comprehensive data collection methods.

Going forward, the exercise has so far engaged a number of highly trained enumerators who shall move to specific households with electronic devices to register households.

Currently, there is a multiplicity of social protection programs such as the LEAP and the active labour market programs, with each using various methodologies to identify and register beneficiaries.

The GNHR however seek to present a paperless and uniform process for identifying extreme poor households using proxy means test approach involving the collection of data on each household biometric, demographic and other socio-economic characteristics.

With this laudable intervention in place, individual social Protection programs will no longer spend quality time and resources in carrying out activities at targeted communities to identify poor beneficiaries for enrolment.

All they require is to fall on the GNHR for the data needed.

In order to avoid any event of duplication, the programme has collaborated closely with key stakeholders and institutions including the Ghana Statistical Service to design an effective collection using the paperless census approach.

Mr. Robert Austin is the National Coordinator for the Ghana Social Opportunities Project, GSOP and gives more insight into the program.

The launch of the GNHR data collection exercise took place in the Upper West Region on August, 1 2016 under the distinguish patronage of the sector minister, Nana Oye Lithur.

The World Bank sponsored program spearheaded by five key ministries through an MOU is in pursuance of the Gender Ministry’s resolve to contributing its quota in fighting to reduce poverty and insecurity in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions by 2017.

According to Mr. Austin, lessons from Upper West Region has enhanced its delivery system translating into high quality data collection with the support of traditional rulers.

The engagement session involving revered chiefs drawn the various paramountcies in the region was to brief them on the processes of the registration.

According to a Communication Specialist for the GNHR, Philip Dornyo, the chiefs and the media have respective roles to play in the effective implementation of the program.

He also seized the opportunity to denounce speculations that suggest that social interventions are partisan and therefore favour loyalists of the ruling government.

All households in targeted communities and districts are eligible to register and are encouraged to do so.

After registration the households will be categorized as poor, no-poor or extreme poor.

GBC