PHOTO: Minister Saydee-Tarr
By William Selmah, wselmah@g,ail.com
The minister of Gender and Social Protection Williametta Piso Saydee-Tarr says the ultimate goal of the Liberia Social Safety Nets (LSSN) project in Liberia is to cover the entire country and positively impact as many lives as possible.
The LSSN is a program designed to set up a basic comprehensive national safety delivery program to provide income support for extremely poor and food insecure house households under a loan scheme to the Liberian government. Parters include USAID, World Bank, LISGIS, among others.
It currently covers Maryland and Grand Kru Counties, and is on the verge of rolling out to River Gee and Bomi Counties.
“The whole idea is not just about giving out money to the people, but also teaching them the tools to work with the little that they have”, Madam Tarr said.
The LSSN project has already begun impacting lives even while still in its pilot phase, evident by testimonies of some of the initial beneficiaries, she pointed out while addressing journalists at a one day media roundtable held in Monrovia at the weekend.
Some of the initial beneficiaries, Minister Tarr added, used their first quarterly allotments to build houses, while others used theirs to support their children’s education.
A cross section of Gender Ministry’s partners
The Minister used the occasion to underscore the importance of the social registry component of their program in properly identifying through a data base, the most vulnerable – the project’s prime target beneficiaries.
In an earlier presentation, LSSN Social Registry Manager Shadrach S. Gbokie disclosed that renovation work on the Data Center has been completed and ready for use.
According to him, a data collection firm has also been hired to collect data on more than 200,000 households in Bomi, Bong, Maryland and Nimba Counties.
“Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with LISGIS for spot checks during the data collection in the four counties,” Gbokie further added.
He believes the Liberia Social Registry Program has what it takes to stimulate efficiency, effectiveness and coverage and scope of social protection interventions in this country. The LSSN currently covers 3,451 households, according to Gbokie.
During the media roundtable, a video clip was screened in which some beneficiaries narrated how they expended their allotments and benefits accrued from them.