This case study was undertaken as part of a research project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) (2008-2010) and the Australian Government, (AusAID, under the Australian Development Research Awards 2008) (2008-2011), looking at gender and social protection effectiveness in Latin America, Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

In Ghana, there has been growing policy momentum around social protection issues over the past five years, motivated by a concern to reduce poverty and vulnerability. In 2007, the draft National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) was completed and policy dialogie and programmatic action have intensified in thw wake of the 2008-2009 global crisis. Key social protection programmes now in place include the government's new flagship, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme, launched in March 2008.

The focus on this report is to analyse the extent to which gender-specific economic and social risks inform LEAP programme design and implementation, with the aim of informing onoing initiatives to strenghten the programme's effectiveness.