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Ghana SOCIAL WELFARE
In precolonial Ghanaian societies, it was normal for an
individual to receive economic assistance from members of his
extended family--including paternal and maternal uncles, aunts,
grandparents, and cousins. The practice of expecting assistance
from family members grew out of the understanding that the basis of
family wealth derived from land and labor, both inherited from
common ancestors. Even as an individual sought help from extended
family members, he was in turn required to fulfill certain
responsibilities, such as contributing labor when needed or
participating in activities associated with rites of passage of
family members. It is because of this mutual interdependence of the
members of the family that anthropologist Robert S. Rattray defined
the extended family in Ghana as the primary political unit. Today,
the same system of welfare assistance prevails in rural areas where
more than two-thirds of the country's population resides.
Legislation for the provision of a modern national social
security system went into effect in 1965. Further legislation was
passed in 1970 to convert the system into a pension plan to provide
for sickness, maternity, and work-related injury benefits.
Government welfare programs at the time were the responsibility of
the Department of Social Welfare under the Ministry of Labour and
Social Welfare (now the Ministry of Mobilization and Social
Welfare). As the national economy was reformed, the Workers'
Compensation Act of 1986 was passed to guarantee wages to workers
in the private sector while they were undergoing treatment for
work-related injuries.
These plans, however, applied only to individuals employed in
the formal sector of the economy. With about two-thirds of the
country's population residing in rural areas, and with most urban
residents engaged outside the formal economy, the traditional
pattern of social security based on kin obligations still
functions. In rural areas, individuals continue to turn to members
of the extended family for financial aid and guidance, and the
family is expected to provide for the welfare of every member. In
villages, towns, and cities, this mutual assistance system operates
within the larger kinship units of lineage and clan. In large urban
areas, religious, social, and professionally based mutual
assistance groups have become popular as a way to address
professional and urban problems beyond the scope of the traditional
kinship social security system
(see Urban Society
, this ch.).
According to a 1988 newspaper report, housing has become a
major problem for city dwellers. The report indicated that former
governments have largely ignored the problem, thereby allowing the
situation to reach an alarming state. The result is an acute
shortage of affordable rental housing for urban workers and
students who have to pay exorbitant rents. This shortage in turn
has resulted in working husbands' leaving their families in their
home villages and returning only when their work schedules allow
them time to visit.
The introduction of the "Rural Manifesto" of 1984 was an
attempt by the PNDC administration to address a general development
problem that included urban housing. According to the 1984 plan,
many services such as the provision of pipe-borne water, banking
facilities, and electricity, were to be introduced to the rural
areas, thereby making such locations attractive to workers and
others who might otherwise migrate to towns and cities. Because the
implementation of these services, especially rural electrification,
began in earnest only in the late 1980s, the plan's impact on
rural-urban flow was as yet uncertain in the early 1990s.
Data as of November 1994
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