WFP Holds Meeting with Stakeholders

Bolgatanga, Sept 23, GNA - The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo, on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the way the Ghana School Feeding Programme was executed in the past in the three northern regions describing it as disproportionate, appalling and unreasonable considering the poverty level in the area. "I thought we were the most impoverished in Ghana, surprisingly the percentage allocated to the three northern regions under the programme was woefully inadequate and could not practically address any poverty in these areas."

The Minister said this at a day's meeting organized by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for stakeholders on its intervention programmes including the School Feeding Programme and food for flood victims in the three northern regions.

The participants were drawn from District and Municipal assemblies and District Directors of Health and education services from the Upper East Region.

Mr. Woyongo wondered how the three northern regions could be allocated two, four and seven per cent of total share of the programme and said poverty in the three northern regions are so glaring that it did not need magic to inform authorities that children were underweight, they were stunt in growth and a number of them were severely malnourished and dying.

The Minister lauded the WFP for its numerous interventions and initiative to partner the School Feeding Programme in the delivery of food for pupils in the region and expressed the hope that the 36,857 pupils from 54 schools benefiting from the current programme would go a long way to reduce malnutrition in the region.

Mr. Woyongo said for the interventions to succeed and work effectively, the collaboration of all stakeholder institutions such as the district assemblies, the health and educational sectors were needed. He said the speedy carting of food items from the region ware house to the district and finally to the beneficiary schools was vital to the smooth implementation of the programme.

The Minister cautioned against high pilferage and diversion of food items as a result of improper monitoring and supervision, and called on the partners involved in the execution of the programme to make provision for adequate storage facilities and eschew lukewarm attitude. Ms. Gyamilah Abdul-Razak, National Programme Officer of the WFP, said the objective of the workshop was to provide orientation on her outfit's programmes and operations in northern Ghana. She said her outfit had been working actively in the three northern regions since the floods of 2007 and pupils, pregnant and lactating mothers had benefited more from WFP interventions.