School feeding policy : An important government initiative
The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is one of the important government initiatives to encourage needy children to go to school. Under the programme, pupils in deprived schools are given one nutritious meal a day.
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The GSFP, which was previously placed under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development since its implementation in 2005, was moved to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection last year.
But the programme faces a financial challenge, which is characterised by delays in releasing feeding grants for payment to the about 5,000 caterers preparing meals for about 1.7 million pupils in 216 districts in the country.
That situation sometimes compels some caterers to suspend the preparation of meals to the pupils.
GSFP policy
To address the challenges facing the programme, a new GSFP policy was formulated, and subsequently launched by the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, recently, at Bortianor in Accra.
The policy seeks to optimise the opportunities that various commitments and pieces of legislation provide in order to achieve a meaningful impact on national and local school feeding and sustainable development.
Government representatives, traditional leaders, civil society organisations representatives and caterers were involved in the policy development process.
The policy envisions rapid national socio-economic development achieved through a coordinated, integrated and accountable National School Feeding Programme; delivering improved nutrition for disadvantaged schoolchildren, reliable markets for local farmers, effective local catering services and enhanced local incomes.
Its goal is to deliver a well-organised, decentralised intervention, providing disadvantaged children with nutritionally adequate, locally produced food, thereby reducing poverty through improved household incomes and effective local economic development.
Minister's perspectives
Nana Oye said the goal of the policy was to deliver a well-organised, decentralised home-grown school feeding programme that "provides disadvantaged schoolchildren with nutritionally adequate, locally produced food, thereby reducing poverty through improved household incomes and effective local economic development".
That, she said, was intended to provide sustainable, efficient social development support to children in deprived Ghanaian communities through an efficient and reliable school feeding programme.
It would also strengthen the collaboration and coordination between national and sub-national actors in implementing the programme.
The Minister also said the policy would foster local economic development through capacity support for local enterprises involved in food production, marketing and processing.
It was also expected to promote local collaboration and joint ownership of child nutrition, health promotion and education by local authorities, communities and stakeholders.
