Enact law to govern School Feeding Programme

Kumasi, Aug. 24, GNA – Mr Seidu Adamu, National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), has advocated the enactment of a law to govern the operations of the programme.

This, he said, had become necessary to strengthen its structures and reduce the manipulation and interference by politicians.

In addition, such a law would help to give the programme a clear-cut national focus, to enhance its delivery capacity and successful implementation.

Mr Adamu was speaking at a press conference in Kumasi on Wednesday, to highlight the state of the programme.

The GSFP was started in year 2007, with the intention to bring down short-term hunger and malnutrition amongst school children.

It also aimed at helping to improve school enrolment, attendance and retention, as well as boost domestic food production.

The National Coordinator said, currently 1,775 schools are covered by the feeding programme and that with the support of some development partners they were re-targeting the beneficiary schools.

This is in response to concerns raised by some stakeholders, development partners and civil society organizations about the criteria for selecting the beneficiaries.

Mr Adamu said a recent study by the World Bank showed that the programme was one of the most poorly targeted social interventions by government.

Giving the national percentage summary, he said Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions have the greatest percentage coverage of 25.44 per cent and 18.32 per cent, respectively.

The three Northern Regions which have the highest poverty rate, with many malnourished children have been unfairly covered. The percentage coverage for the Northern stands at 7.09, that of Upper West, 3.06, and the Upper East 4.78.

Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, said the unfair national distribution was defeating the purpose for which the programme was introduced.

He therefore appealed to the media to be supportive of efforts by the government to re-evaluate and re-target the beneficiaries.