Covid-19 intervention in Ghana an assessment of the impact on the livelihood and socio-economic developments of rural folks in Bia west district

Abstract

The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has jeopardized livelihoods of people and socioeconomic development of their communities. In wake of mitigating such effects government made available several relief packages and social interventions. The purpose of the study was to assess the COVID-19 interventions in Ghana; its implementation challenges as well as its impact on the livelihoods and socioeconomic development in the Bia West District in the Western North Region of Ghana. To achieve this objective, the study adopted a quantitative method by using the simple random sampling technique to select a total number of 357 respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The data was collected and analyzed using descriptive analysis. The study revealed that majority of the respondents had considerable levels of awareness of the interventions and programs on COVID-19. The study revealed that the reduction in financial burden, empowered the poor, supported income-generating activities, encouraged the entrepreneurial spirit, and reduced the vulnerability to COVID-19 as impact of the interventions. It was revealed that the interventions brought the establishment of new health facilities to augment infrastructural development of the area. The study recommends that government should speed up the implementation of all policies, programmes and establish a database where the citizenry can easily access information. They should also institute a policy implementation team and improve upon the way policies are organised in the country.