The World Bank’s Partnership for Economic Inclusion organized a Social Protection South-South Learning Forum in Rwanda from February 10–14, 2025.
This year’s event, the eighth iteration of the forum, was hosted in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, under the theme “Economic Inclusion: Scaling Up Pathways to Better Jobs for the Poor.”
The forum brought together more than 270 participants from nearly 60 countries, including policymakers, government practitioners, and partners from around the world.
The event provided an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning, focusing on scaling evidence-based economic inclusion through government programs, drawing from the State of Economic Inclusion Report, which was launched in the last quarter of 2025.
As a country implementing a flagship economic inclusion program under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP), which has enrolled over 60,000 beneficiaries to date, Ghana was invited to participate in the five-day event.
The delegation shared Ghana’s experiences with participants and gained insights from other global practitioners and partners to enhance project implementation and outcomes.
The delegation representing Ghana at the program comprised the following:
• Mr. Eric Tetteh-Addison – Director, PPBMED (MLGCRA)
• Prof. Prosper B. Laari – National Coordinator, GPSNP2 (MLGCRA)
• Mr. Desmond Duametu – Productive Inclusion Specialist, GPSNP2 (MLGCRA)• Mrs. Adwoa Asotia-Boakye – National Engineer, GPSNP2 (MLGCRA)
Prof. Prosper Laari underscored the significant impact of the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project on social protection delivery.
In addition to providing public assets such as roads, dams, and climate change mitigation interventions, the project’s Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) component has supported over 75,000 poor and extremely poor beneficiaries in 121 districts with short-term employment opportunities to develop essential community assets.
In return for their services, these beneficiaries have earned wages that have helped stabilize their household consumption. Community assets provided through the project include access roads connecting deprived communities to agricultural produce markets and other social services.
The dams constructed under the project continue to support livestock watering, crop irrigation, and other domestic uses.
Furthermore, the project has contributed to environmental sustainability through afforestation and massive plantation development initiatives with commercial value for beneficiary communities and districts.
Under the Productive Inclusion component, many poor households now engage in various enterprise activities, which have enabled them to support their families.
Beneficiaries in the northern and southern parts of the country have undertaken different types of income-generating activities, with many success stories. The project has so far supported over 26,000 beneficiaries with grants of up to US$300 to start their respective businesses.
Desmond Duametu, the Productive Inclusion Specialist, participated in a panel discussion at the event on the theme “Designing for Impact: Programmatic Adaptations to Scale.”
He highlighted Ghana’s journey in developing its version of Productive/Economic Inclusion programming, now known as CLASS under GPSNP2.
The programme started as a pilot in 2015/2016, covering only 7,072 beneficiaries across eight metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Upper East Region, mostly from rural communities.
It has since expanded to a national scale, covering over 60,000 beneficiaries in more than 1,140 communities across 108 MMDAs, with an urban model commencing in the last quarter of 2024.
During one of the roundtable discussions, National Engineer Mrs. Adwoa Asotia-Boakye provided insights into public works implementation in Ghana.
She highlighted the country’s progress in digitizing Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) implementation, transitioning from manual processes to digital systems over the past decade.
The Director of PPBME, Eric Tetteh-Addison, emphasized the decentralized nature of the program, which allows implementation at the district and local levels. This approach promotes ownership and sustainability of the programs.
Finally, Prof. Prosper Laari expressed enthusiasm about the peer-to-peer learning experience.
He hoped that the new partnerships and networks established through the delegation’s participation in the forum would be leveraged to improve, consolidate, and expand programme delivery and coverage in Ghana.
He also hinted at a potential West-West learning forum for implementing countries in West Africa, relying on Ghana’s expertise and lessons in managing safety net programs.
He stressed that economic inclusion is a crucial investment for sustainable poverty reduction and emphasized the need to prioritize expanding its implementation, as it has the potential to create sustainable jobs for the poor and vulnerable, particularly for youth and women.
GA/KA
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