The influence of Ghana's social welfare system on the vulnerabilities

Despite the numerous welfare interventions in Ghana, there are still many vulnerabilities including poverty, streetism, unemployment, and domestic violence. This calls for the scrutiny of the welfare agencies, interventions, and their effects on the vulnerabilities they target. Despite studies on vulnerabilities and welfare interventions in Ghana, limited research has established the association between the two. This study, therefore, sought to interrogate the influence of the welfare system's interventions on vulnerabilities in the Accra metropolis. In-depth interviews (N=37), surveys (N=152), and observations (in seven welfare agencies) were conducted with 189 participants. The quantitative data were organized using SPSS version 27, while the qualitative data were analyzed using Creswell's data analysis spiral. Key causes of vulnerabilities identified include poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, and lack of information. Key roles played by welfare agencies in the country include preventing the emergence of vulnerabilities, remediating problems, and educating people on social issues and interventions. The welfare interventions have had various positive effects, such as enhanced employment, increased school enrollment, and attitudinal change in communities. However, there were non-insignificant associations between welfare interventions and employment performance, family functioning, and building relations according to the beneficiaries. This finding hints at a difference in the expectations of welfare officials and beneficiaries concerning the import of welfare interventions in people's lives and raises questions about the evaluative approach adopted by the welfare agencies. Some negative effects of the interventions are people's exposure to violence and inhibition of social development. At the same time, key challenges faced in welfare delivery include limited government commitment to social development, resource constraints, and political interference in welfare delivery. The study, therefore, recommends the implementation of more comprehensive evaluative mechanisms and increased government commitment to social development. Keywords: Effects of interventions, interventions, poverty, roles of interventions, social development, social welfare, vulnerability.