On the evening of 07 July 2024, I listened to John Mahama answer a question posed to him about his record on social interventions as president during his encounter with the press at the Kempinski hotel in Accra.
His answers dwelled on physical infrastructure clearly exposing his lack of understanding of the difference between social interventions and social amenities.
It is no surprise then that in the absence of any global shocks while he was in power the nation faced major difficulties.
In the table below, I have laid out the main differences between Social Amenities and Social Interventions.
Social Amenities | Social Interventions |
They are physical infrastructure. E.g. Hospitals, Schools, Roads, Parks, Court buildings, etc. | They are not physical. E.g. Income support like Lively Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), free maternal healthcare, free bus ride for minors and the aged, rent advance support, national health insurance, reduced health insurance premium for the aged and minors, etc. |
They are tangible. Can be seen with the eye. | They are intangible. They are feelable by the emotions. You can only experience it or observe it in action. |
They have largely a localized impact. E.g., a bridge largely serves citizens in a given area | They have wide geographical impact. E.g. Free Senior High School can be experienced by every home in all regions of the country |
They affect a smaller group of citizens | They affect a larger group of citizens |
Its takes time to be executed and completed. For example, it takes time to complete a road or hospital. | Time to full implementation is shorter and faster. E.g. Free maternal health policy once agreed by government, can get into motion almost immediately. |
It is the easier to conceive. Not much thinking power needed. | Its is harder to conceive. Requires a lot of thinking power |
It is important to note that both of them will require some policy plan to raise resources to achieve the them and those plans in themselves are not the interventions or amenities. Another important point to be aware of is that some social interventions will need a physical infrastructure to be effective like a school building being needed to give access to free education. However, some social interventions can commence while a physical infrastructure is being contemplated or raised. An example will be a school tuition under a tree or a makeshift structure.