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Social policy comprises “collective interventions to directly affect social welfare, social institutions and social relations... concerned with the redistributive effects of economic policy, the protection of people from the vagaries of the market and the changing circumstances of age, the enhancement of the productive potential of members of society, and the reconciliation of the burden of reproduction with that of other social tasks”(Mkandawire, 2011).

The territory that constitutes modern Ghana comprises different indigenous societies which have developed social policy practices based on family and community support founded on principles of reciprocity and inter-generational transfer (Amanor, 2001; Apt, 1997; Kpessa, 2010). Especially so in the past, kinship networks were vast and “served as insurance when drought and disease threatened starvation”(Rodney 1972, p. 7) and indigenous societies were “tightly organized, so that a man from Brong could visit Fante many hundred miles away and receive hospitality from complete stranger who happened to [be] of his own clan”(Rodney 1972, pp. 12-13). Within this system, livelihood activities such as farming, fishing, blacksmithing, hunting, trading, and mining are done not only for their commercial value but also for their intrinsic value of protection, production and social reproduction (Apt, 1997). For instance, adults of working age participate in productive activities to support not only themselves but also the elderly, who partner in raising the young. Further, the care and training provided to young people are considered an intergenerational investment against sickness, old age, and other vulnerabilities …