Poverty Alleviation In Ghana-The Kind Of Poverty Alleviation Policies Ghana Needs

Ghana was put into the middle income rank in 2010 owing to the significant rise in the per capita income which resulted from rebasing the economy.The middle income status attained served as an indication of a reduction in the poverty incidence as the GPRS II had it as its prime goal.However,it will be very useful to know that we cannot use the middle income status attained to determine improvement in the standard of living of the people,because that could be very deceptive.Using the per capita income method to check poverty tendencies in Ghana may not portray the exact living standard of the people since it is an average of the national Gross Domestic Product.The per capita income approach of measuring standard of living will be very wrong if some few people feel the increase in national income without the other majority(the poor).Per capita income can be accurate in its determination of standard of living when the national income is shared equally among the population.This research has reviewed a literature and has brought to the attention of all stakeholders such as government,policy makers and the Statistical Service in Ghana that there are other social factors like adequate food,drinkable water,decent clothes,decent shelter,quality education,good healthcare,good roads,markets,access to internet and information,electricity etc.that come to play in determining the living standard of the people and that relying only on GDP per capita cannot give a true reflection of the living standard of the people.The study has established that indeed the middle income status does not truly reflect an improvement in the living standard of the people.This is because based on the information gathered from the field,a lot of Ghanaians lack access to good healthcare,quality education,good roads and drinkable water.A lot of people cannot afford the three-square meals,decent shelter and clothing.The paper therefore asserts that poverty is prevalent in Ghana and has suggested a blend of the two(GDP per capita and some social factors)for ascertaining a true reflection of the living standard of the people.Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that has lived with humanity till today's globalized world.This phenomenon in Ghana is generally caused by a lot of factors such as poor leadership and governance,unemployment,illiteracy,bribery and corruption,poor healthcare,conflicts,natural and man-made disasters,inequality and discrimination,lowinvestment in the agricultural sector etc.Just like a lot of attempts have been made by regions and countries,international organization such as the United Nations,European Union,Africa Union,and International Monetary Fund as well as non-governmental organizations to fight and ameliorate the phenomenon,Ghana has also made series of efforts.However,in all its efforts,Ghana has not experienced a significant progress as it is in some other African countries and some regions as South Asia(Jonas Owusu Ohene,22 October,2017).This raises a question about the effectiveness of the approaches that are being used by Ghana in its fight against poverty.It also suggest that there are some oblivious factors that are causing poverty in Ghana.This paper has therefore used questionnaires as its primary sources of information as well as the library and news reports as its secondary sources of information to identify some of these oblivious factors as religion,road accidents,lack of family planning,poor or lack of maintenance culture,poor attitude towards work and high demand for foreign goods and services.The paper has also discussed how these oblivious factors come about and has suggested how they can be remedied with respect to the current socioeconomic situation of Ghana.