Summary: UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) —> Global action plan UN Hunger Task Force (UNHTF) —> African action plan New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) —> National plan Government Ghana —> GSFP.

How it was started
In 2003 a delegation of the UN Hunger Task Force in Johannesburg collaborated with NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) in laying down the principles and ‘Rules of Governance’ for home grown school feeding programmes. A clear NEPAD plan resulted, which was offered to all African states. Ghana was the first country to adopt the programme, and worked out a detailed implementation plan in July 2004.

How it developed
The execution of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) was delegated to the GSFP National Secretariat, reporting to the Ministry of Local Governance, Rural Development and Environment (LGRDE). The school feeding plan became a substantial part of the proposal ‘Imagine Ghana free of malnutrition’, presented to the nation by the Ghana Health Service in March 2005. Since then, funding for the programme has been earmarked in the National Budget. But, these funds are insufficient to run the programme at the desired scale of a minimum of 1 million schoolchildren.
One nutritious meal a day is estimated to cost € 50.00 per year per child. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is therefore indispensable in enabling the programme to be run. This is where the Dutch government comes in, in order to play a supportive role in the programme.

How it succeeded
A pilot project of ten schools, one in each of the ten regions (provinces) of Ghana, was started in September 2005. The results of the pilot were sufficiently positive to start to roll out the programme with three schools in each of the 138 districts of Ghana. At present, 500,000 primary schoolchildren (in almost one thousand schools) are enrolled in the programme. A long-term implementation plan to reach one million schoolchildren by the end of 2010 was agreed upon in September 2006 and was formalized in an operating plan by mid-2007. Crucial elements in order to reach this ambitious goal are the availability of funds, the organization of the programme at district and community (school) level and, most importantly, the link between the schools and agricultural development.

How it proceeded

The GSFPs first phase is ending which means the program needs to be re-evaluated: the coming months are earmarked for carrying out a nation wide evaluation exercise to asses the current status of the GSFP; it’s impact based on the set objectives and it’s challenges at all decentralized levels. The learning’s of the first four years will be used when preparing an operational plan for the second program phase. Despite the challenges marking the first phase, the GSFP is considered an inspiring model for other countries in Africa who have also started replicating (parts of) the Home Grown School Feeding Concept. 

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