News:
July 13, 2017
The Honourable Member of Parliament for Hohoe in the Volta Region and a member of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Committee of the house, Dr. Bernice Adiku Heloo has urged the Rt Hon Speaker and leadership of parliament to ensure that the name of the committee is changed to Economic
Development Committee to reflect Ghana’s current status as a lower middle income country.
Development Committee to reflect Ghana’s current status as a lower middle income country.
According to her, the name “Poverty Reduction Strategy has outlived its usefulness in Ghana’s status books hence the need for it to be changed to a more responsive and relevant name.
The former deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection and Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation explained that the committee was first set up in the early 2000s when Ghana was declared a Highly Indebted and Poor Country (HIPC) to help in drafting relevant poverty reduction strategies to enable the country come out of poverty.
Dr Adiku Heloo who was a member of the Committee in the 6th parliament argues that issues that are discussed during the committee sittings with relevant stakeholders including reports of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) are not poverty reduction strategies but economic empowerment issues and therefore the committee should be restructured as such.
Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com