School Feeding Programme Has Made gains

Page 11
08-05-09

A DEPUTY National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Mrs Mary Ansong, says efforts are being made to eradicate the obstacles that hinder the smooth operations of the programme.
“We of the national secretariat shall continue to engage and monitor stakeholders and work to eradicate some of the obstacles that impede the smoothness of our collaboration so that we can accelerate the delivery of our responsibilities,” she said.
Mrs Asong said this in reaction to a report by SEND Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), that the school feeding programme was facing serious challenges.
The NGO, in its findings painted a gloomy picture of the programme, adding that for instance, 61 per cent of beneficiary schools did not have good kitchen structures, a situation it said, adversely affected the maintenance of hygienic environment for the preparation of food.
It also revealed that about 78 per cent of the schools did not have adequate plates and cups, resulting in eating in turns which led finally to prolonged lunch breaks.
It revealed that about 43 per cent of the schools lacked access to safe water which compelled pupils to trek for water to support the feeding programme.
Supervisory inspection in about 96 per cent of schools did not focus on any health related service or adherence to health standards in the feeding programme but mainly on getting pupils fed, the study showed.
In terms of agricultural services, 91 per cent of schools indicated during the study that foodstuffs were not obtained directly from farmers in the beneficiary districts.
Mrs Ansong said the challenges of the programme were enormous and that its achievements over the past three years could also not be shielded.
"I wish to state that the challenges of this programme as envisaged in all other interventions over a three year period of implementation cannot be substituted for complete failure, and the drumming of message of despair in a section of the report has, in my opinion, been over elaborated," she said.
Although she admitted there were problems with the report, she said, "the GSFP cannot be insulated from acute inter-sectoral challenges in terms of participation and performances.
Mrs Ansong said in a similar monitoring or inventory carried out by SNV last year, it came out that the programme had helped to reduce the trafficking of children from Tehey/Caesarkope in the Dangbe East District of the Greater Accra Region to Yeji in the Brong Ahafo for fishing.
"We must be pleased with some gains recorded in some deprived districts as confirmed in the report. We must be pleased with the situation of Daa Naa, a pupil of Pina Primary School in the Sisala District who has recovered from his protein deficiency sickness., after benefiting from the programme," she said.
She said most deprived district assemblies were able to mobilise funds as in the case of Sisala East to build well purpose kitchens for the beneficiary schools, and indicated that there was the need to be pleased with districts that had commissioned Body Mass Index (BMI) exercises and deworming of the pupils without waiting for funds from the national secretariat.
Mrs Ansong said in a particular case it was overwhelming to note that the chiefs and people of Pina carried out deworming and BMI exercises regularly, saying that the national secretariat would continue to remind collaborating ministries of their responsibilities and engage them properly so that the needed resources and attention would be found for the programme.