First Phase of School Feeding Programme to end in 2011

Cape Coast, April 1, GNA - The first phase of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is scheduled to end in December this year. The Deputy National Coordinator of the Programme, Mr Francis Gyarko, who said this on Thursday, expressed concern about the lack of an Act of Parliament or Legislative Instrument to back the programme. Consequently, Mr Gyarko called on the government to act swiftly to enact a law to save 93this laudable programme" whose sustainability could be jeopardized by a new government with no interest in the programme.

He expressed his views at a sensitization workshop in Cape Coast, aimed at enlightening media practitioners on the structures of the GSFP to equip them with adequate information on the School Feeding Programme to enhance accurate reportage on the programme. According to him, an evaluation would be carried out next month on the first phase of the Programme to enable the Secretariat re-design and encourage its possible expansion in the next phase during, which the issue of poor targeting would be addressed. Mrs Sarah Naa Deede Agbey of the Social Accountability Programme urged the public and civil society to demand accountability from duty bearers, stressing that, the media should desist from being confrontational and bring to the fore issues that would ensure total growth of the nation.

She said some of the setbacks realized during the beginning of the first phase of the School Feeding Programme were poor coordination among collaborators, corrupt practices and lack of evaluation but there had been vast improvement in the last few months. Mrs Agbey said the evaluation to be carried out was to facilitate the building of strong systems and institutions for posterity and called the media to play an effective role by making input into the restructuring. Ms. Sarah Yeboah, Central Regional Coordinator of the Programme, said her outfit would continue to ensure effective monitoring for the caterers to abide by the rules governing the Programme.