A Study of Community Participation in the Supplementary Feeding Programme in the Tamale Municipality

Abstract

This is a study of community involvement in the Supplementary Feeding Programme of the Ministry of Health in the Tamale District of the Northern Region, Ghana, at the request of the Tamale Municipal Health Management Team. The Supplementary Feeding Programme involved the setting up of community feeding centres in poor communities in the Northern Region of Ghana. The main objective was to improve upon the nutritional status of pre-school children, pregnant and lactating women. It was envisaged that after three years of operation donor support was to be gradually withdrawn. In its place, community initiative and support were expected to have developed to a level that would sustain and expand the uses of the feeding centres. A descriptive study was carried out to assess the extent to which the communities with feeding centres have reacted in the direction of the programme goal of community involvement. The main focus was on observing changes in the set-up and management of the feeding centres. Another aspect of interest was the communities' resource input. This study was intended to serve as the basis from which further intervention could be modelled to foster community participation in health. It may also serve as a resource for studies on the under-lying reasons of the dynamics of community participation in Tamale. Findings of the study suggest that the communities have participated in the supplementary feeding programme to some extent. Even though some feeding centres have been in operation for relatively long periods community participation seems to be at the same level for all the communities. For community initiative and support for the feeding centers to develop towards the programme goal of self-sufficiency some changes will have to put in place. The programme settings will have to be modified so as to nurture further community participation.