Scaling What Works: Integrated Social Protection Reforms for Poverty Reduction and Upward Mobility in Ghana

World Bank

No 212208, The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Ghana has experienced robust economic growth in recent years, yet poverty reduction has stalled as high inflation, fiscal imbalances, and widening regional disparities persist. The 2022-23 inflation shock alone pushed an estimated 850,000 Ghanaians back into poverty, with deprivation concentrated in the northern regions. In this context, social protection is central to restoring and promoting livelihoods, safeguarding human capital, and enabling upward mobility. This paper argues that well-targeted and adequately financed social safety-nets, layered with productive inclusion and linked to employment and complementary services, can help reduce extreme poverty in Ghana and support poor households climb the jobs ladder. It combines evidence on the impacts of Ghana’s flagship programs with simulations that assess the poverty and fiscal implications of scaling up coverage, improving benefit adequacy, and institutionalizing productive inclusion. Results show that pairing interventions along with reforms on coverage and benefit adequacy can lift up to about 1.8 million people out of extreme poverty, at a fiscal cost of roughly 0.32 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The analysis also lays out an operational and policy reform agenda. This includes expanding the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to reach 600,000 households, and the Productive Inclusion program to reach 150,000, by 2030; aligning benefit structures to household needs and improving their adequacy; linking safety nets to health, skills, and agricultural services and value chains; and strengthening delivery systems such as the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR), Social Protection Management Information System (SP-MEMIS), and Single Window Citizen Engagement Service (SWCES). Finally, the paper identifies viable financing options, including reprioritization of regressive subsidies, and adherence to fiscal rules under the 2025 Public Financial Management (Amendment) Act. Taken together, these reforms would help develop a system of programs capable of reducing extreme poverty by half in the short- to medium-term while strengthening resilience, productivity, and inclusion across the country.

Date: 2026-06-30
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