The New Dawn in Social Protection
The NSPS will seek to empower the extreme poor and other vulnerable populations through the implementation of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Social Grants Programme. LEAP is an innovative and context specific initiative that will provide both conditional and unconditional cash transfers to target populations.

The programme is intended to empower and help targeted populations provide for their basic needs, poise them to access existing government interventions, provide a "spring board"’ to help them to "Leap" out of the malaise to extreme poverty, and ultimately empower them to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.

The LEAP Programme is to provide conditional cash transfer’s to the extreme poor with no alternative means of meeting their subsistence needs. The case for targeting these groups is made on cost-effectiveness and equity grounds. With a limited public budget for social transfers, it seems sensible and fair to allocate these transfers to those who need them most. To this end, unconditional grants will also be provided to individuals with no productive capacity e.g. the elderly poor, persons with severe disabilities etc.

Why Social Grants?
Cash-based social grants provide a critical element for reducing vulnerability to poverty, regardless of the framework within which one understands social protection. In addition to their vital social contribution, social grants can support critical economic objectives. Many of the world’s fastest growing economies over the past several decades have built social protection into their policies all early stages because of its potential to increase productivity and contribute to stabilizing domestic demand.

The failure to provide appropriate social protection limits prospects for growth and development at the very foundation of society because household poverty undermines children’s nutrition and educational attainment, limiting their future prospects.1 To this end the NSPS will go beyond income support and aims to reduce poverty and inequality by enhancing the productive capabilities of poor men and women.

Target Beneficiaries/LEAP Conditions
Based on the above objectives, the following five target groups will receive LEAP social grants:

• Social Grants for Subsistence farmers and lasher folk
• Social Grants for the extremely poor above co years
• Care Givers Grant Scheme for OVCs, particularly Children Affected By-Aids (CABAs) and children with severe disabilities.
• Caregivers Grants for incapacitated /extremely poor PLWHAs
• Social Grants for Pregnant Women./ Lactating Mothers with HIV/AIDS.

Beneficiary households select target groups will be required to comply with certain conditions while they remain on the scheme. These conditions will include:

• To enroll and retain all school going age children in the household in public basic schools. This will afford the children to also benefit from the on going Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Program.

• All members of the household must be registered and card bearing members of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

• New born babies (0 -18 months) must be registered with the Birth and Deaths Registry, attend required post natal clinics and complete the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

• To ensure that no child in the household is trafficked or engaged in any activities constituting the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL).