The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the World Bank has launched a Social Protection (SP) Single Window Citizens Service to provide a single-entry point for its major programmes.
The Single Window dubbed: “Help Line of Hope†which is the first of a kind in the country would give hope to people by offering a full range of high-volume, inbound or outbound call handling services, including; citizens support, multilingual customer support, interactive voice response and web-based services.
It comprises a Unified Case Management System that would provide a single platform for citizens to log and monitor grievances as well as disseminate relevant information and join different types of communications such as Mobile, SMS, Email and Website to register, track, and resolve grievances by channeling them to relevant programmes or agencies.
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The ‘Help Line of Hope’ to the Call Centre is 0800 800 800 and 0800 900 900 and qualified SP trainees would be on hand to lodge your complaints.â€
Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, said it was a dream come true, since the ministry’s mandate was to promote the welfare and rights of children, the vulnerable, persons with disability and the excluded.
She said it was a great opportunity for people who were suffering in silence to now come out boldly to report all forms of abuses meted out to them.
Ms Djaba said females were the worst affected when it comes to matters of gender-based violence and women were the most affected victims of Female Genital Mutilation, defilement, rape, child marriage, child prostitution, negative widowhood rites and allegations of witchcraft.
She said the rationale for the single window entry system was to serve as a clear entry point for citizens who require SP services, simplify administrative processes and procedures and reduce time and cost of service provision.
“It is also to improve quality of service provided to citizens and beneficiaries, increase transparency and accountability in the operations of SP services and provide an independent complaints collection mechanism and monitoring to ensure that SP programmes adhere to its rules and proceduresâ€.
She reminded all stakeholders that, it would take concerted efforts on the part of all to push the agenda forward to strengthen the referral systems in Ghana, where the poor could have access to social services without much difficulty as the nation has the responsibility to provide for those people.
Her Ladyship Sophia Akuffo, the Chief Justice said the call centre would guide victims of abuses to know their rights and to access justice and will put a smile on the faces of abuse victims.
She said victims through the call centre would find remedies of justice and judiciary support and this reinforces the ministry’s mandate as one of their core values.
The Chief Justice said it was a groundbreaking initiative for social development and urged the media to help make the centre a tool for education and educate the public on its importance, and the impact it would make on the lives of the abuse victims and the vulnerable.
Mr Bright Wireko Brobbey, a deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, who chaired the launch, said the most important aspect of the initiative was the follow up of complains lodged at the centre and urged the recipients to be warm and friendly in receiving complaints from victims.
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He said there was the need for more awareness creation and sensitisation and education of the initiative to take it down to the grassroots, where most of the abuses were meted out to victims and called on Ghanaians to stop triggering the call lines for jokes but rather make good use of it for its intended purpose.
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primenewsghana.com/Ghana News