CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background of the Study
A Pension as defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) refers to a series of monetary payments made to a worker or his/her surviving relatives following retirement whereas pension schemes are defined as the set of financial, administrative, legal, social, and other arrangements established for the purpose of providing pensions to a designated group of workers and their survivors. From the above definition, it is obvious that the goals of pension schemes and social protection programs mostly intersect. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Social protection is defined as any program or set of programs that measures providing assistance or benefits in cash or in kind to ensure income security and access to some basic human needs mainly health care. More so, social protection, include access to key services, such as education, social work and social care, as well as other measures, including labour market polices (ADB, 2001; World Bank, 2012; UNDP, 2016a).
Governments are under social obligation to establish such Social Protection Programs that are aimed at lowering poverty or providing income protection in old age or the occurrence of contingencies such as a worker becoming invalid during the course of his employment. In Ghana for instance, the Ghana National Social Protection Strategy (GNSPS) also known as the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) was commissioned in the year 2007 with the core mandate of reducing poverty inequality as well as improving the livelihood of Ghanaians.