Minister Advocates Formulation Of School Feeding Policy

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural development in collaboration with the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council have organised a stakeholder participation workshop to review the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP). The workshop came out with suggestions and contributions from stakeholders of the Programme for the formulation of a new policy for the development of the programme . The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Baba Jamal, said the formulation of a National School Feeding Policy is very important since it will give the programme a solid grounding principle as to how it should operate. The Deputy Greater Accra Minister, Nii Djamba Vanderpuje, said the programme, introduced in 2005 to satisfy the basic nutritional needs of pupils in public schools, has achieved great success. He noted that the programme is also faced with numerous challenges hence the need for reforms to achieve its intended purpose. The Deputy National Coordinator, GSFP Mrs Victoria Kumah-Mintah said currently about one billion 642 thousand 271 pupils and four thousand 952 schools nationwide are benefiting from the programme. She said a policy will provide the guidelines for the programme to strategise for sustainability, aligning with national policy framework as well as stabilise funding and budgeting for the programme. It will also bring about cost effectiveness, quality programme design, strong institutional arrangement, effective collaboration among actors and effective monitoring and evaluation. Mrs Kumah-Mintah said a policy will streamline the accountability systems, inter-sectoral coordination and strong community participation and ownership of the programme.