Feeding Programme to take on board 530 schools

Wa, May 8, GNA - The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is to take on board 530 new schools throughout the country this academic year, Mr. Angaamwine Salifu Siita Upper West Regional Coordinator of the GSFP has announced.

He said out of the number, 90 new schools in the Upper West Region would benefit from the programme with 10 schools each selected from the nine districts.

He said currently 18 selected schools were being provided with food feeding assistance from the programme in the region. Mr. Siita was speaking on: "The roles and responsibilities of key actors in the GSFP at a Regional sensitisation workshop on the GSFP in Wa on Wednesday.

He said GSFP would be a legacy for the NPP government, since it was for the first time that the country deemed it necessary to provide feeding assistance to school children to help produce quality leaders for the country.

Mr Siita announced that government had directed all district assemblies and schools in the country to establish "District Assembly Farms" and "School Gardens" to help sustain the GSFP.

He said government was also prepared to buy food produced from the Youth in Agriculture under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and local farmers for the programme and urged all to embrace it. Mr Samuel Zan, Country Director of Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND Foundation) called for affirmative action on the part of the government for the poorest regions of the country to benefit fully from the GSFP.

He explained that if that were not done, those with power would get more benefits from the programme than those with less power. He urged implementers of the programme to allow the structures under the GSFP to work in collaboration with stakeholders to enhance the sustainability of the programme.

Mr. Zan urged government to provide potable water and toilet facilities for schools that had been selected for the programme to promote hygienic conditions in the schools.

He called for capacity building of GSFP staff and other collaborators, especially, personnel of agriculture and health deeds to effectively monitor the programme in the schools

The GSFP is a joint Ghana government and Dutch government funded programme introduced in 2008 and targeting a number of schools from the country's poorest districts with high incidence of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and illiteracy levels.

Its goal is to reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition, increase school enrolment, attendance and retention, among others. The SEND Foundation organised the forum for stakeholders in the GSFP to enhance the quality of implementation of the programme by deepening collaborative efforts among the stakeholders.