NDC Manifesto: What government has done, will do under Youth and Sports

The 2016 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was officially launched by President John Mahama in Sunyani on Saturday.

The 80-page document titled "Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana" was unveiled in style at the Sunyani Coronation Park with all the stalwarts of the party present.

This was done some four days after President John Mahama presented highlights of the manifesto at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra.

At the presentation, the President indicated that new sports stadia will be built in the Upper West, Upper East, Volta, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions.

The achievements of the government in the last four years in Youth and Sports have been outlined in the Manifesto. Also listed are government's commitments from 2017-2021 if given the mandate on December 7.

For the entire 2016 Manifesto of the NDC, click here.

The following is the full details of the NDC manifesto promises on Youth and Sports which also fall under 'Putting the People First,' one of four thematic areas the manifesto has been divided into.

YOUTH & SPORTS
The NDC Government recognises that Ghana’s population is youthful, hence the need for policies and programmes that will harness and develop their potential for national development.

In line with this, the next NDC Government will continue to invest in job creation for the youth, youth empowerment and sports development.

This will create the environment for the youth to attain excellence in the pursuit of opportunities in this country. It will also enable the youth to excel in local and international sporting competitions.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
In the Youth Sector, the NDC Government has achieved the following:

• Established and launched the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) Initiative, which has led to the provision of support for over 100 youth start- ups in one year;

• Provided legal backing - Youth Employment Act 2015 (Act 887) for the Youth Employment Agency, which is currently employing about 100,000 youth under its modules;

• Created 21,045 jobs under the Rural Enterprise Project;

• Created 21,802 jobs under the Opportunities Industrialisation Centres (OIC), National Vocational Training Institute;

• Created over 9,000 jobs under the Cocoa Seedlings Production Project;

• Revamped the Ghana Broiler Re-vitalisation Project;

• Provided training and financial support for over 100 youth under the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) Fund;

• Assisted 2,000 youth under the Graduate Business Support Scheme;

• Provided support to over 190,000 persons through the Microfinance and Small Loan

Centre (MASLOC) finance schemes;
• Supported 500 young people through the Gratis Foundation equipment manufacturing programme;

• Injected $124 million into skills development under the Development of Skills for Industry Project (DSIP) initiative;

• Invested over $200 million in providing support services to artisans under the Ghana Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) Initiative. In the Sports Sector, we achieved the following:

• We completed the construction of the 15,000-seater capacity Cape Coast Stadium with an 8-lane artificial surface running track, two outdoor basketball courts, one handball court, a boxing training court, audience emergency rooms, over 20 guest rooms and four athletic lounges and other facilities;

• We won 19 medals at the 2015 All Africa Games held in the Congo, with the Black Queens and the Men’s Lawn Tennis Doubles Team winning gold medals;

• The Black Stars placed 2nd in the African
Nations Cup tournament held in Equatorial Guinea and qualified for the next African Nations Cup tournament;

• The Black Satellites placed 3rd in the Orange African U-20 Cup of Nations Tournament held in Senegal; • We commenced construction of a new boxing- gym and sports complex near the Korle Lagoon in Jamestown, Accra;

• We commenced work on the construction of a stadium at New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region;

• The Black Queens, Princesses and Maidens have all qualified for both continental and global tournaments;

• Ghana won its first ever-Olympic gold medal at any level in any sport at the Youth Olympics in Nanying, China in 2014;

• Ghana won its first gold medal in the Commonwealth Youth Games in long jump.

OUR COMMITMENT (2017-2021)
Youth Empowerment and Development
The next NDC government will:
• Increase funding for the YES Initiative to GH¢25 million a year to provide more funds to grow and develop youth entrepreneurship;

• Enact a new Youth Act to take care of emerging issues in youth development and consolidate existing related laws;

• Refurbish the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex in Accra to serve as a sports and recreational centre for the youth;

• Retool and refurbish all eleven (11) Regional Youth Leadership Training Institutes;

• Continue mainstreaming youth development issues into national development frameworks, plans and programmes;

• Support youth empowerment through enterprise training, business support and the provision of micro credit.

SPORTS The next NDC Government will:
• Complete the New-Edubiase Sports Stadium in the Ashanti Region;

• Build new sports stadia in the Upper West, Upper East, Volta, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions;

• Revamp the Winneba Sports College into a full-fledged practical and academic human resource development centre affiliated to the University of Education, Winneba;

• Systematically develop a new and effective system through public-private partnership in the management of our existing sports infrastructure;

• Renovate and expand facilities at the El- Wak Stadium and redevelop the Nicholson Park at Burma Camp into a mini stadium in collaboration with the Military;

• Construct a new multi-purpose indoor sports dome for basketball, volleyball, handball, weightlifting, table tennis and aquatics;

• Revive the traditional Inter-Schools and Colleges sports programmes to help unearth talent;

• Continue to support our various National Teams to qualify for and win laurels at international competitions such as the African, Olympic, Commonwealth and World Cup Tournaments;

• Require the MMDAs to provide well-resourced sports infrastructure in all the districts to enhance the development of sports;

• Introduce a policy for an ‘admissions quota’ for talented sports and other creative students in SHS and public universities;

• In every region, one of the new community day senior high schools will be fitted and developed into a centre of excellence in sports;

• Facilitate the establishment of a scheme to fund sports activities with particular emphasis on the lesser-known sports;

• Continue to facilitate the recruitment of qualified technical staff at the district level as sports coordinators to help develop sports at the grassroots level.

CONSOLIDATING SOCIAL PROTECTION
Social protection has remained an integral part of the broad social development policy of the NDC. It aims to advance the livelihood of the vulnerable in our society including women, children, persons with disability, indigents and the aged.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
We have:
• Achieved the first target of the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty two years ahead of the 2015 deadline;

• Launched the National Social Protection Policy;

• Finalised a Social Protection Bill;
• Launched the National Targeting Unit to develop the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) database and Management Information System (MIS);

• Increased the LEAP beneficiary households from 71,000 in January 2013 to 146,074 in June 2016;

• Increased the proportion of the District Assemblies Common Fund allocated to Persons with Disability by 50%;

• Proposed amendments to the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715) to make it consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability;

• Developed a draft on Ghana Accessibility Standards on the built environment in collaboration with the Ghana Standards Authority to facilitate access for persons with disability;

• Introduced the Elderly Persons Welfare Card (EBAN) to 10,526 elderly persons above 65 years to provide 50% rebate on Metro Mass transport fare for the elderly, priority access to all social services, transport terminals, hospitals and banks;

• Finalised the National Ageing Bill for submission to Parliament;

• Registered over 92,000 people comprising 11,000 prisoners, over 10,000 Persons with Disability, over 10,000 elderly persons, 60,000 LEAP beneficiaries and 1,000 female head porters (Kayayei) free of charge on the NHIS;

• Provided LEAP support for inmates of witches camps, state orphanages and leprosaria;

• Set up coordinated gender-based response centres at Mallam Atta and Agbogbloshie markets to provide counseling services, humanitarian and psycho-social support to head porters (Kayayei) and other vulnerable market women.

Gender We undertook the following activities:
• Strengthened the gender legal framework by working on the following bills which are at various stages of completion:

i. Affirmative Action Bill
ii. Intestate Succession (Amendment) Bill
iii. Property Rights of Spouses Bill
iv. Human Trafficking Legislative Instrument v. Domestic Violence Legislative Instrument.

• Launched the National Gender Policy to mainstream Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment into Ghana’s development efforts;

• Granted educational scholarships to over 300 girls and trained them in masonry and spraying mechanics;

• Launched the first Government Shelter for abused women and children;

• Shut down the witches camp at Bonyase in the Northern Region;

• Provided free NHIS registration for over 800 inmates of witches camps.

• We will empower women to take control of their reproductive health.

• We will promote population control.
Children
We have:
• Launched the Justice for Children Policy;
• Finalised the Legislative Instrument for child adoption under the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560);

• Finalised Foster Care Regulations under the Children’s Act 1998(Act 560);

• Amended the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560);

• Established a Central Adoption Authority;
• Initiated a national campaign against child marriages;

• Created three additional child assault treatment centres in Effia Nkwanta, Komfo Anokye and Tamale Hospitals to treat abused children;

• Implemented the Child and Family Welfare Policy 2015 on pilot basis in 20 selected districts;

• Commenced the registration of all 1.7million pupils in school-feeding schools on the NHIS;

• Increased the number of children on the school-feeding programme from 440,000 in 2008 to 1,700,000 in 2015.

OUR COMMITMENT (2017-2021)
An NDC government will continue to consolidate and expand the interventions that have been implemented over the last four years and introduce additional social protection initiatives to sustain the livelihood of the vulnerable and lift others out of poverty.

We will:
• Implement a graduation programme that identifies vulnerable persons to be trained and empowered to own their own businesses;

• Develop an enhanced national household registry that identifies vulnerable persons and extremely poor persons for support;

• Increase leap beneficiary households to 350,000;

• Artisanal fishing communities, coastal and inland, and deprived inner city communities including Zongos will not only be targeted for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme but will also be one of the earliest beneficiaries of the Progressively Free S.H.S. intervention while we work to ensure substantial transformation of these communities under the Economic Transformation and Livelihood Empowerment Programme (ETLEP);

• Improve access to quality healthcare by continuing to register vulnerable persons including indigents, kayayei, prisoners, aged persons and persons with disability on NHIS;

• Pursue the passage of the Aged Bill and the Social Protection Bill;

• Improve the targeting of social protection interventions to cater for excluded groups such as out-of-school children, child-headed households, people with severe disabilities, lepers and the aged and urban poor;

• Continue the empowerment of kayayei by extending the 1,000 pilot Out-of-School (Kayayei) YEA Programme to cover 10,000 kayayei even as we work to provide them with alternative livelihood opportunities;

• Continue the process of registering all 1.7million pupils in school-feeding schools on the NHIS;

• Expand the coverage of Elderly Persons Welfare Card (EBAN), to enable more of the aged have preferential access to banking

services, hospitals and free metro mass transit bus rides;

• Upgrade the EBAN card into an electronic card for financial transactions;

• Introduce a Special Economic Scheme for Senior Citizens (SPESSEC) under which vulnerable senior citizens above 65 years who are not on any formal pension scheme will be granted a bi-monthly stipend by the State.

• Offer special assistance for the education of pupils and students with special-needs including, but not limited to, schools for the blind, deaf, autism and cerebral palsy;

• Introduce motorized transport (tricycles) for physically challenged persons. Demonstration models will be presented to the National Federation of Disabled Persons for evaluation;

• An additional 30% increase of the District Assemblies Common Fund reserved for Persons with Disability to cater for their free NHIS subscription.

-myjoyonline.com