Three Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)—the Civil Society Platform on Sustainable Development Goal 10, the Social Accountability Forum, and the Civil Society Platform for Social Protection—are urging the government to expeditiously disburse the four-month delayed Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) grants to alleviate the suffering of beneficiaries.
According to the CSOs, beneficiaries of the LEAP program are experiencing hardships due to the delayed grant disbursements coupled with recent economic instability.
Despite the government’s commitment to ensuring timely disbursement of these grants as part of the recent IMF bailout negotiations, the CSOs indicate that the process remains disappointingly slow.
Addressing the media at a press conference in Accra, the convener for one of the CSO’s, the Civil Society Platform on SDG Goal 10, Jeleel Odoom, called on the government to promptly release the LEAP funds, stating that anything less would highlight a breach of trust and duty by the government.
“”Despite the government’s commitment to prompt payment of these grants as a condition of the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout negotiations, the process remains disappointingly sluggish. This delay has left vulnerable unions, including the elderly, orphans and vulnerable children, very poor pregnant women and lactating mothers with infants under one year, and persons with severe disabilities without productive capacity in dire conditions, with costs of living increasing by 15% over the past year and food prices rising by 20%.
“This highlights a significant breach of trust and duty by the government. The civil society platform on sustainable development goal 10, the social accountability platform, and the civil society platform for social protection jointly issued this press statement to prevail on the government to expeditiously pay the grants to ameliorate the suffering of the LEAP beneficiaries,” they said.