HOME GROWN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME THE GHANAIAN MODEL

AS ICON FOR AFRICA

Dr. Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

University of Ghana, Legon Accra, Ghana
(Food Technologist and African School Feeding Programs Expert)
Overview of the Ghana School Feeding Programme
The Ghana Home Grown School Feeding Programme was launched in September 2005
following African Union-New Partnership for Africas Development (AU-NEPAD)
recommendation to use home-grown foods, where possible, as one of the Quick impact
initiatives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially for rural areas facing
the dual challenge of high chronic malnutrition and low agricultural productivity. Ultimately,
the programme is expected to impact on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2 and
3, which respectively include the achievement of universal primary education, and the
promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.
The basic concept of the programme is to provide children in public primary schools and
kindergartens in the poorest areas of the country with one hot, nutritious meal per day, using
locally-grown foodstuffs. The long term goal is to contribute to poverty reduction and food
security in Ghana. The programme objective to reduce poverty and food insecurity through
the school feeding programme is anchored on the following conceptual framework:
i.
Long term poor rural household and community food security is the ultimate
objective. The strategy to feed school children with locally prepared food that is nutritionally
adequate will focus the spending on local foodstuffs. This will provide ready market for farm
output, leading to wealth creation at the rural household and community level.
ii.
This will help rural communities to generate wealth through improved incomes from
the ready market for their farm output (as provided by the school feeding programme).
iii.
With improved incomes, poor rural households can afford the additional food intake
needed to ensure the full complement of nutritional needs that will address the rampant shortterm hunger, and the problems of under-five and maternal malnutrition.
This will help to break the cycle of rural household and community poverty. Importantly, it is
expected that this strategy will be supported by the spending of 80% of the feeding cost in the
local economy, as the community of the school, before the district as a whole for the direct
sourcing of inputs. Thus, the three key pillars which underpin the GSFP and translate into
three corresponding immediate objectives are: (i) reducing hunger and malnutrition, (ii)
increasing school enrolment, attendance and retention and (iii) boosting domestic food
production.
An initiative of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
Pillar 3 of the New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD), the GSFP is part of
Ghanas efforts towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals on hunger,
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poverty and primary education. It is wholly consistent with major Government of Ghana
(GoG) policies and strategies including the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, the
Education Sector Plan, Imagine Ghana Free from Malnutrition, Food and Agriculture Sector
Development Policy, National Social Protection Strategy and the decentralization policy.
Clearly, the Ghana Government has shown broad understanding that the Home Grown
School Feeding approach can deliver these outcomes, and it has the potential to trigger
development processes that will benefit not only children in schools, but the entire
community within which the programme is implemented as a whole. To ensure sustainability
of the programme, the Ghana School Feeding Programme is implemented under a welldefined government policy. Ghana has an overall development programme that is centred on
economic growth and poverty alleviation known as the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy.
The Home Grown School Feeding Programme was launched under the Ghana Poverty
Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II) which identifies education as the key to the production of
the requisite human capital needed to achieve middle-income status by 2015.
Programme Implementation and Partners
The implementation of the Programme involves key actors from different sectors of the
national economy. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has the
oversight responsibility of the programme. However, it collaborates with the Ministry of
Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Women and
Childrens Affairs, Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service in its
implementation at the national level. The implementing agency is the Ghana School Feeding
Programme Secretariat, which is responsible for the coordination and management of the
programme and is located in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. It is expected to provide
support to the implementation structures at the district level, ensure accountability and proper
reporting of the programme. The developmental objectives of the programme are as shown
on Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Developmental objectives and expected outputs of the Ghana School Feeding
Programme
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Additionally, it has Secretariat Units at the regional levels, which provide support to the
districts implementation bodies. The Regional Coordination Offices and the Regional
Coordination Council are respectively responsible, with support of the National Secretariat,
to oversee the district level and provide a linkage to district leadership. The core
implementation lies at the district level where District Assemblies have the responsibility of
setting up District Implementation Committees (DICs) and School Implementation
Committees (SICs) to run the programme (Fig. 2). The DICs have the responsibility of
ensuring provision of specified infrastructure and mobilise community support to provide
inputs for schools. Additionally, the DICs have direct oversight of the implementation of the
programme in all selected schools nationwide and are responsible for distributing the funds to
the SICs and holding them accountable for the use of the funds. The SICs are assigned with
the execution of feeding in the schools, food preparation as well provide the necessary
linkage of the Programme with the local communities.
Alongside the implementation bodies, the Programme has strategic partners who assist and
support its activities through funding, technical support and direct school feeding. These
partners include the Netherlands Government, World Food Programme, Netherlands
Development Organization (SNV), Social Enterprise Development Organization (SEND),
SchoolFeeding Initiative Ghana Netherlands (SIGN), International Centre for Soil Fertility
and Agricultural Development (IFDC), Ghana Agriculture Initiative Network (GAIN) and
AgroEco Organic Farming.

Figure 2: Ghana School Feeding Programme actors and their Relationships

The feeding costs GH0.40 (~US$0.30) per child/ day. According to the 2010 GSFP budget,
the Netherlands Government and the World Food Programme are the two major partners
contributing approximately 17% and 5% of the annual programme budget with the
Government of Ghana bearing the largest quantum of 78% (US$ 35.72 million) of the total
cost, making it largely a Ghana Government owned programme.
Programme Coverage and Successful Expansions
The programme started in September 2005 with ten pilot schools, one school selected from
each of the ten regions in Ghana. In August 2006, the programme was scaled up to two
schools per district and was expanded to 200 schools covering 69,000 pupils in all 138
districts in Ghana. At the end of December 2006, the programme was in 598 schools with a
total population of 234,800. This was further expanded in March 2007 to 975 schools,
covering 408,989 kindergarten and primary pupils. Thus, by the end of the first quarter of
2007, the GSFP had already surpassed the 2007 year-end target of 889 schools and 320,000
children set in the Programme Document. In 2009, at least two schools were enrolled in the
programme in each district covering 1696 schools across the nation, with 656,624 pupils fed
daily. It is envisaged that by the end of the first phase in 2010, a total of about 1.04 million
primary school and kindergarten children will benefit from the programme. Currently, the
programme is covering about 25% of all primary and kindergarten pupils across the country
and this figure is expected to increase to about 34% by the end of 2010 after the projected
expansion.
Alongside the government expansion programmes, the feeding programme itself has
triggered considerable increases in school enrolment of between 10 and 40% across the
countries by pupils who otherwise would have been out of school. However, these increases
are variable depending upon the region and the district. An interview with the Headmistress
of Adenta Primary School in Adenta Accra, during the school feeding field visit at this
years Global Child Nutrition Forum held in Accra, Ghana, disclosed that there has been an
explosion of numbers in her school after two years of the implementation of the feeding
programme (in that school). This is causing considerable limitations in classrooms space and
that classrooms which used to take 40 pupils and are being occupied by about 70 pupils and
as a result, the pupils now sit in threes on a desk instead of two. The situation is not too
different in many schools around the country. Again, she explained that the feeding
programme has led to very high school retentions above 80% in many schools across the
country, and coupled with the high school enrolment, the government needs to consider
structural and classrooms expansions to commensurate the high increases they are
experiencing, she lamented.
Food Procurement, Preparation and Feeding
The primary responsibility of the Ghana School Feeding Programme in procuring at the
national level is to abide by all national procurement policies along the entire procurement
process, and to ensure that those who receive GSFP funds are also held accountable to these
policies. However, there are no established procurement models or procedures that serve as
guiding principles for caterers/suppliers of the foods purchased for preparation on the
programme. To date, the only guideline for food procurement under the programme is that,
all foods must be procured from locally-grown (Home-Grown) commodities produced by
local farmers, with emphasis on procuring from nearby farmers at community level within
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ones district, or sourced within regional markets or at worst, within Ghana. Food procurement
is being done by Caterers who are also responsible for cooking and feeding, which is done at
the school level using kitchens constructed by the programme or the community, typically
known as the Caterer Model.
Community Participation and Involvement
Community participation and responsibility provide the means to ensure ownership of the
school feeding intervention, and the facilities provided for cooking and feeding, water and
sanitation. The essential methodology for school and community level programme promotion
and execution supported by ownership and sustainability is community participation. This
takes place to varying degrees in all phases of the implementation cycle. Ownership is key to
sustainability of the programme and this has been amply demonstrated by several
communities around the country.
Ensuring Sustainability and the Way Forward
Finally, to ensure sustainability of the Programme, additional requirements that are deemed
important to the progress and successful implementation of the programme are being
considered, and these include the following:
i.
Creation of appropriate policies and frameworks that would link market access of
farm produce by local farmers to the School Feeding Programme.
ii.
Close cooperation between the Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health and other
stakeholders to work together to achieve the expected outcomes of the programme.
iii.
Sound logistics and organizational arrangements to facilitate quick release of funds to
the decentralized districts to smooth running of the programme.
iv.
Capacity building and technical assistance for DICs, SICs, school caterers and cooks
in the areas of food safety, handling and quality management.
v.
Adequate facilities on-site (school kitchen, storage, etc.)
vi.
Provide adequate logistics and resources for effective monitoring and evaluation.
vii.
Provision of food banks/storage facilities at regional/national levels to act as fallback
institutional set-up which delivers food (regionally/nationally produced) in times of severe
insufficiency of local supply.