An assessment of the implementation of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GFSP) by the Sissala Literacy and Development Programme (SILDEP) in the Wa East and Sissala East Districts of the Upper West Region has revealed that though majority of the citizenry are aware of the programme’s existence, they lacked the requisite knowledge regarding the governing principles that underpin its operations.
The assessment also discovered that reports on fiscal or financial statements were highly inaccessible to most of the stakeholders, with a greater percentage of the few people who had access to it finding it difficult to understand the content.
Mr Moses Luri, the Executive Director of SILDEP made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Wa on Wednesday.
He said the role of duty bearers though clearly spelt out in the programme’s operations manual, a section of the stakeholders were not aware of their own roles and those of others towards the implementation of the programme.
Mr Luri said more than half of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) admitted that they had not consciously decentralized their Departments at the District levels to collaborate with the District Assemblies with respect to planning and budgeting.
The SILDEP Executive Director also noted that the percentage of local foodstuff used by the caterers still trailed behind the expected 80 per cent.
The funding source of the programme was also highly linked to the Government of Ghana with little recognition for the Netherlands Government as a funding partner to the programme.
Mr Luri stated that though the people were some how informed about the objective of the programme, the objectives of boosting local food production in particular remained highly unrecognized among the people.
Mr Luri said these and some other issues hindered the effective implementation of the programme and must be addressed by all concerned stakeholders.
He pointed out that SILDEP with technical support from SNV Ghana, an NGO, would carry out vigorous sensitization and capacity building workshops to keep both the stakeholders and community members well informed about their expected roles towards the successful implementation of the programme.
He also urged the authorities to address challenges such as transparency and accountability, as well as delays in the release of funds.