Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Social Welfare Provision in

Ghana

Name: Prof. Esme Manful

Department: Sociology & Social Work
Faculty & College: FoSS/CoHSS
SOWK 259
21st January 2025
 Expected Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lecture the student should be able
to:
1. Explain the three main interpretations of the term
‘welfare’.
2. Distinguish the arguments for or against the
provision of social welfare.
3. Discuss social welfare provision in contemporary
Ghana compared to pre-independence.
4. Appraise the role of the professional Social
Worker in the provision of social welfare.
www.knust.edu.gh
 Meaning of Welfare
Welfare derives from wel fare, that is:
• from “well in its still familiar sense
and
• fare, primarily understood as a journey or
arrival but later also as a supply of food”
(Williams 1976, 281).
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 Meaning of Welfare cont.
❑ The word welfare has historically been
related to happiness and prosperity,
❑ current understanding first emerged in the
20th century is often associated with needs,
but it goes beyond what individuals need but
includes the community and society as a
whole.
❑ Fare is a process

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 Meaning of Welfare cont.
Welfare is an ambiguous term, with three main
interpretations:
i. Welfare commonly refers to 'well-being':
people's well-being or interests consist of the
things they choose to have.
ii. Welfare also refers to the range of services which
are provided to protect people in a number of
conditions, including childhood, sickness and old
age.
iii. In developed countries, welfare also refers
specifically to financial assistance to poor
people.
 Contemporary Conception of Social Welfare

❑ Social welfare is seen as a broad system

intended to maintain the well-being of
individuals within a society.
Includes public provisions of:
• education,
• health,
• housing,
• transportation and
• public assistance
 Measuring Social Welfare
• Micro level
❑Welfare referred as 'well-being
• Individual welfare
– rooted in normative, individual perceptions of society
– subjective feeling of happiness,
– living conditions
• Macro level
❑Welfare referred as range of services for the protection of
the vulnerable
• Collective welfare
– public and private
– spending on welfare
– policies and programmes
 Social Welfare
• “A nation’s system of programs, benefits, and
services that helps people meet those social,
economic, educational, and health needs that
are fundamental to the maintenance of
society”. (Kornblum & Julian, 2007)

• “the study of agencies, programs, personnel,

and policies which focus on the delivery of
social services to individuals, groups, and
communities.” (Mooney, Knox & Schacht, 2010)
 Goals of Social Welfare
The goal of social welfare is to:

i. fulfill the social, financial, health, and recreational

requirements of all individuals in a society,
ii. enhance the social functioning of all age groups, both
rich and poor,
iii. meet the basic needs of individuals or groups of
people, when other institutions in our society, such as
the market economy and the family, fail at times, then
social services are needed and demanded.

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 Arguments for Collective Provision
• Practical: Welfare provision has economic and social
benefits. Countries with more extensive systems of welfare
protection tend to be richer and have less poverty.
• Humanitarian: Concerns about poverty and need have
been central to many developments.
• Religious: Several of the world's major religions make
charity a religious duty.
• Mutual Self-Interest: Many welfare systems have
developed, not from State activity, but from a combination
of mutualist activities, gradually reinforced by government.
• Democratic: Protection of vulnerable has developed in
tandem with democratic rights.
Arguments against Collective Provision
❑Basis against welfare in principle:
• it violates people's freedom.
• redistribution is theft;
• taxation is forced labour
❑Assumptions of arguments:
– People have absolute rights to use property as they
wish.
– People do not consent to welfare provision;
redistributive arrangements are based in compulsion.
– The rights of the individual are paramount.
 Historical Development of Social
Welfare as a Social Institution
Stage pre-industrial, agricultural, rural industrial urban society: (post-
society 19th century)
Provision by: family, kinship system, neighbourhood, systematic provision by state/
informal support networks, religious government;
institutions....etc.;
People involved: provided by layman, non-professional, specialized, professionalised;
unspecialized; elaborated differentiated services;
Basis of welfare: based upon normative values of mutual based upon liberal values:
help, kinship or locality ties, charity, universal, welfare right,
religious beliefs...etc.;

Nature of service: largely remedial in nature, selective, safety net approach, social wage
stigmatized; concept , etc.; institutionalized;
conceived as an integral system of
society, not a remedial appendage;
 Key social institutions and functions
Institutional form Primary functions Social welfare functions

Families Procreation, intimacy, Care, Financial support

support

Religious Spiritual development, Counseling, social services

caring for the needy

Support groups, voluntary Mutual aid, philanthropy Volunteering, community

agencies support

National/Regional/local Mobilization & distribution Antipoverty, economic

governments of goods for collective goals security, health, education,
housing, etc

Work organizations Employment Employee benefits

Producers & consumers Exchange of goods/services Commercial social welfare

for money goods/services
Role of the Social Worker in Welfare Provision
Social workers are expected to assist in restoring,
maintaining and enhancing the social functioning
of individuals and the society this responsibility
include;
1. Facilitate the inclusion of marginalized, socially
excluded, dispossessed, vulnerable and at-risk groups
of people;
2. Assist and mobilize individuals, families, groups and
communities to enhance their well-being and their
problem-solving capacities;
3. Advocate for, and/or with people, changes in those
structural conditions that maintain people in
marginalized, dispossessed and vulnerable positions.
The Subworld of professional Social The Subworld of Traditional Actors
Workers

Formal institutions Informal institutions

Social order maintained by Social order maintained by
constitutional law and formal social control, tradition and
institutions personal relations

Educated Illiterate, non-educated

Advanced Developing
Modern Traditional
Western Pre-colonial/traditional
African, Ghanaian
Christianity Islam, other religions
The Subworld of professional The Subworld of Traditional Actors
Social Workers

Science Superstition, Spiritualism, religion

(not Christianity)

Objective Subjective
Now Then
New , strange(to the Ghanaians) Old, well-known (to the Ghanaians)

Have resources and formal Lack resources and formal

institutions institutions

Urban Rural
Global Local
 Bibliography
• Avendal, Christel (2011). Social Work in Ghana: Engaging
Traditional Actors in Professional Practices. Journal of
Comparative Social Work 2, 1-19.
• Hansan, J.E. (2017). What is social welfare history? Social
Welfare History Project.
Retrieved from https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/recollection
s/social-welfare-history/
• Manful, E., & Manful, S. (2012). Development of Social Work
Education in Ghana: Past, Present and Future . In J. A. Jaworski,
Advances in Sociology Research (Vol. 12, pp. 201-213). New
York: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
• Zastrow, Charles (2017). Introduction to Social Work and Social
Welfare: Empowering People. Australia: Cengage Learning.