Gender Analysis

Development planning has often been judged as neutral, which means that development programmes and projects that are implemented as a result of planning are assumed to benefit all stakeholders equally. These include men, women children, the disabled and the aged. A critical interrogation of this assumption through gender analysis and diagnosis bring to the fore the fact that certain segments of society by way of their subordinate position do not benefit in development at all or are even made worse off.

It is against this background that the MPCU has adopted mainstreaming gender into its development efforts by ensuring that programmes selected for implementation are gender sensitive. To understand the various gender issues in the municipality the MPCU adopted the Harvard Analytical Framework (HAF) tool to collate activities profile, access to and control over resources as well as the influencing factors.

Some of the gender issues that need to be addressed include:

• Non availability of gender disaggregated data

• Gender insensitive physical infrastructure

• Inadequate sensitization programmes on gender mainstreaming

The analysis was undertaken separately for the rural and also the urban communities. This is to ensure gender specific policies and programmes. At the end of the analysis, issues identified are summarized in tables1. 11 and 1.12 below.

Vulnerability Analysis

Vulnerability may be defined as lack of capacity (of a household) to cope with adverse shock on resilience against a shock. Or it may be defined as the probability that livelihood stress would occur. Groups that have been identified in the Municipality are disability, gender related issues and street Children.  As an institution with the mandate to improve the quality of life of inhabitants within its jurisdiction, the Assembly deems it necessary to commit parts of its limited resources into vulnerability and social exclusion issues through a number of initiatives and interventions.

Disability

According to the Statistical Service, 2.8% of the populace in the Assembly is disabled with 52.2% being females and 47.8 males. Sight disability accounted for the highest percentage (44.6%) of all cases of which 56.6 percent were females while 43.4 percent were males. The least was hearing disability (9.3%).

The Assembly has a Disability Common Fund that giving out to disabled persons to enable them start a business.

Street Children

The major problem confronting street children in the Municipality is the woeful inadequacy of suitable opportunities for proper physical and psychological development. Children on the street are actually homeless and live on the street (28.3% of all street hawkers can be found in this group and they sleep in the open). Their survival depends on personal efforts of struggle, which normally ends them in illicit activities.

The integration of street children into the mainstream of social life would heavily depend on how much they can contribute to society. Hence, the Municipality would create the opportunities to support skills training of street children tailored to build the capacity of these children with employable skills to enable them engage in productive ventures through which they can also obtain their livelihood.

Statistics available indicate that majority of these children have low numeracy skills. This has to do with the high school dropout rates amongst these children who cannot read or write. Nevertheless, investments would be made into their vocational training to improve upon their numeracy and literacy skills relevant to their training area.

Some areas of training have been identified as viable technical and vocational skills in which these children could be trained. This include but not limited to auto electrical, auto-mechanics, auto- mechanicals, electronic appliances, masonry, carpentry, driving, sewing, catering, air-conditioning and refrigeration. The Assembly will partner with NGOs, CBOs, and others to provide vocational skills training for school dropouts as well as street children within Accra.

Pro-Poor Programming

To tackle this increasing poverty problem, the Assembly in collaboration with Government of Ghana has implemented a number of pro-poor programmes and projects such as: Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), National Youth Employment Programme, School Feeding Programme, Capitation Grant, and Free Exercise Books among others.

Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP)

As a complimentary to the existing social protection measures, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is been initiated by the Government of Ghana to provide conditional cash transfers to support the extreme poor, vulnerable and excluded sessions of the population.

Four beneficiary households have been identified within the Municipality and registered but are yet to receive cash transfers.

School Feeding Programme

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) was an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition. With regards to the Municipality, a total number of 12 schools benefitted from the programme.