ACTIONAID Ghana has launched its latest project dubbed: “Sustainable Livelihoods and Transparent Local Authorities” (SLATLA), to improve the informal sector of the economy.
Launching the programme, Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, Mr. Sumailia Abdul-Rahman, explained that the SLATLA project was one of the most important interventions that will see his outfit and the local communities work together even better in empowering and supporting people in the informal sector of the economy.
As a global justice organisation committed to achieving social justice, gender equality and poverty reduction, Mr. Abdul-Rahman maintained that people who depend on activities in the informal sector have the right to work under better and decent conditions.
The programme, which is currently being piloted in the La Nkwantang Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region and the Sunyani West District Assembly with support from the European Union (EU) offers a unique opportunity to reward partnerships with community groups who are excluded and marginalised.
With a capital injection of £852,000, the project will engage over 7,000 women who are expected to benefit from various forms of strategic training that will empower them to become self-sufficient.
“The collaboration also seeks to promote environmentally sustainable livelihoods and decent work for women, women groups and youth dependent on informal economies while at the same time improving transparency, accountability and revenue mobilisation in the two local authorities,” he stated.
The country director noted that “it should be possible for a Tomato Growers Association in a community like Teiman in the Greater Accra Region to march to the Ministry of Trade and Industry to demand for better storage facilities to enable them preserve their produce.”
Mr. Abdul-Rahman therefore tasked members of the various communities to call for accountability and transparency in what their monies were being used for by the authorities.
“When we work hard and pay our taxes, we expect our tax collectors to be transparent and accountable to us,” he added.
“In our work with people living in poverty in the most deprived communities in Ghana, we have been confronted with the resilience and fortitude of the people living in the informal sector, who make up more than 80% of the total labour force in Ghana.
The government of Ghana employs only 600,000 people in the formal sector-out of 27 million population.
This means “our economy and millions of households are sustained by our farmers, artisans, traders, food processors, craft makers,” Mr Abdul-Rahman lamented.
According to him, the unfortunate thing about the informal sector was that it is the most neglected by policy makers.
“If the informal sector will grow and prosper, it will not only depend on good policies and strict regulations; a human-rights based approach should be used to empower the millions of people working in the sector to claim their rights and basic needs. We should begin to see poverty, economic and social inequality as human rights issue,” he noted.
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