Focus priority effort on tackling social inequality – UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for policy makers to focus priority effort on ensuring that there is fair and even distribution of resources – to narrow the gaping socio-economic inequality in the country.

Mr. Charles Dzradosi, Social Policy Specialist of the Fund, said the widening gap between the rich and the poor needed to be tackled and should not wait.  

He was speaking at a two-day training workshop on fighting inequality in Ghana, held for the media and civil society organizations, in Ho.

He said deliberate steps must be taken to bridge that gap to speed up socio-economic development. 

Mr. Dzadosi complained about the situation, where in excess of 50 per cent of the nation’s medical doctors were in the capital, Accra, with the rest distributed across the regional capitals.

“Very few them”, he noted could be found in the rural area, something that was denying majority of the people access to quality healthcare.

He made reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs – Goal 10) and said inequality was a threat to long term socio economic progress and poverty reduction.

He called on the media to help the public to have better understanding of issues of inequality and the implications for development and security.

Mr. Suleman Zakaria, Programmes Manager, Inequality Programme Ghana, Oxfam, said globally inequality was rising – a paradox, considering the fact that the world had grown economically.

He added that although Ghana had made significant strides economically, the gains were not shared and felt equally.

The economic growth and distribution of wealth could be felt more in the southern sector – about 2.5 million people taken out of poverty in the south, in contrast with the north, where one million more people had fallen back into the poverty.

He encouraged journalists to bring those issues out for policy makers to deal with them.

Source: GNA