The Chief Of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare says Ghana School Feeding Programme is steadily moving towards universal coverage.
She said government’s plan to incrementally expand the programme to cover all children enrolled in public schools from Kindergarten (KG) to primary six (6) is laudable.
Ms Osei-Opare indicated that the 2020/2021 academic year enrolment data shows that there are currently about 4.73 million pupils nationwide.
Speaking at the 2021 UG Alumni Lecture, on the theme: “Social Protection In Ghana: Are We On Track?” the Chief Of Staff noted that the 2022 National Budget proposes to increase coverage from the current 3.4 million to 4 million pupils representing an increase coverage from the current 71.8 % to 84.5%.
“This is indeed a positive move towards increasing equity across the country in the delivery of the Programme. A universal coverage would certainly reduce the need for intense lobbying by various community actors to get their schools captured under the school feeding programme” she noted.
The Chief of staff explained that a fiscal space analysis gap study conducted by UNICEF in 2020 shows that with the exception of Burkina Faso, Ghana’s expenditure on school feeding as a percentage of GDP is higher than that of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal and other Sub-Saharan African countries.
Ms Osei-Opare indicated that Ghana’s commitment towards fighting poverty is obvious in the direct budgetary interventions that are made for programmes that address inequality.
While mentioning among others some pro-poor programmes introduced by former president Kufour such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS), the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, Education Capitation Grant, the enactment of the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 Act 715, the Chief of Staff intimated “As we expand GSFP to universal coverage, it is imperative that we enhance Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems as well as digitalize the GSFP processes. We must ensure that the money spent on such programmes directly benefit their intended targets and with efficacy.”
The LEAP Programme for instance she disclosed commenced in 2008 with 1,654 households in 21 Districts and currently (2021) has been expanded to cover 344,023 households comprising over 1.5 million individuals across all districts in Ghana.
“Expenditure has also more than tripled from about GH¢60 million in 2008 to over GH¢ 190 million by the end of 2019. Depending on the household beneficiary composition, the bi-monthly cash grants range from GH¢ 64, GH¢ 72, GH¢88 and GH¢106. Even though these amounts may appear small, its impact in these households remain tremendous.”
She further stated that the concept of Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and Agenda 111 as introduced by H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would ensure better access for most vulnerable communities in Ghana.
Source: Kofi Yirenkyi