Exploring the unseen: social protection journeys of Kayayeis in urban Ghana

Popularly known as Kayayei, female porters in the Greater Accra of Ghana come from the impoverished Northern regions of Ghana to carry goods and offer services in marketplaces for a small token. They are a notable, distinct, and alarming migration trend because they are at the junction of numerous disadvantages: they are female, young, and from rural northern Ghana with limited education, working in the marketplaces and living in the slums. These women are found in the corners and open spaces in Accra, sleeping under sheds at night and on the pavement of the principal streets of Accra. The conditions under which they work is bad. In the course of their survival journey in Accra as Kayayei, they are exposed to the vagaries of the weather and several other social vices like the lack of decent accommodation, exploitation, stigmatization, and have health challenges and lack of security, making them vulnerable. Although the porterage business occupies an essential resource gap by offering cheap labour while aiding the mobility of goods in and around urban regions, their social welfare and health issues are deplorable. They earn very little, but lack access to health care and access to social protection programmes despite being entitled to them. No specific policies address their challenges, forcing them to depend on themselves for survival. Those with partners are protected and defended by their partners, while those who do not, face challenges and sometimes feel rejected. Recently, the prevalence of Kayayei, along with its accompanying health, economic, and social challenges, has attracted the attention of researchers, corporate institutions, the media and government institutions. In previous years, different policies have been implemented to help solve these women's problems but failed due to financial constraints and loopholes in the policy framework. Some of the policies failed because they failed to identify the actual needs of the Kayayei. This study investigates the Social Protection Programmes (SPPs) and schemes available to Kayayei in the Agbogbloshie Market in the Accra metropolis of Ghana to provide up-to-date strategies for overcoming the marginalized group's Barriers to SPPs. The study employed a qualitative research design where a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 10 Kayayeis. There was also a focus group discussion, and a government official from the Department of Social Welfare was interviewed. The Lévesque framework was used as a guide in designing and analysing the data to give an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing access to social protection programmes