The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) Zonal Coordinators have undergone a one-day intensive capacity building workshop at the National Secretariat of the programme in Accra.
The workshop was geared towards equipping the zonal coordinators with the relevant knowledge in order to effectively monitor the activities of beneficiary schools, caterers, cooks and other stakeholders in their various zones across the country.
The zonal coordinators who took turns to attend the workshop according to their regions were taken through the various rudiments and fundamentals of monitoring the operations of the programme. Various resource persons took them through Human Resources issues and data collection materials.
They were also taught on how to administer regional and caterer tools as well as head teachers’ information sheet. The training also involved techniques of writing good narrative reports on issues and observations pertaining to monitoring in general.
Addressing the trainees, the acting national coordinator of the GSFP Dr. Mrs Gertrude Quashigah emphasized the need for routine monitoring of the programme saying that “our mandate is to ensure that we get value for money and we can only realize this through robust monitoring in order to ensure that the quality and quantity of food provided to our children is not compromised.
Mrs Quasigah said the caterers like any other businessperson’s primary motivation is to make profit and that if they were not strictly monitored, the “may end up serving substandard meal to the pupils”
She urged the zonal coordinators to take the training seriously, and warned that any person found to have compromised their obligation or connive with caterers to perpetuate illegality would not be spared.
Mrs. Quashigah announced that plans are under way to furnish all the regional offices of the programme with the relevant equipment. She mentioned that resources are being mobilized to procure logistics for monitoring
The Director of monitoring and Evaluation Mrs Akyere Frimpong Manu commended the trainees for their hard work and urged them to continue to give their best for mother Ghana
