The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has inaugurated Ghana's Social Protection Shock Responsive Assessment technical team to augment the works of the Ministry.

The technical team is mandated to support the assessment of Ghana's Social Protection's readiness to scale up its response to shocks and emergencies.

At the inaugural ceremony, the Chief Director, Dr Afisah Zakariah, in a speech read on her behalf disclosed that the government had commissioned an assessment to build an understanding of the opportunities and challenges to supporting the provision of social protection services through national social protection systems during a crisis in Ghana.

"The government of Ghana is therefore implementing a National Social Protection Policy which seeks to ensure that citizens are guaranteed relief from destitution, realize their basic rights, close the inequality gap, ensure inclusion for all Ghanaians and enable all to participate effectively in socioeconomic growth and development of the country," she said.

The Chief Social Policy and Inclusion at the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Paulina Sarvilahti, announced that UNICEF in collaboration with World Bank and World Food Programme would increase its support to the government to strengthen social protection systems in Ghana.

She added that effective social protection support was a crucial factor in determining whether children and their families could quickly return to normality when a crisis occurs.

Members of the technical team were drawn from the MoGCSP, UNICEF, World Bank, World Food Programme, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, UNICEF, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development and Ghana Statistical Service.