Extrait

Background and study aims School food programmes are a popular way to support the education, health and nutrition of school children. As of 2011, the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) reaches over 1.6 million primary school children in all 170 districts in Ghana. Private caterers are awarded contracts by the GSFP to procure, prepare and serve food to pupils. The caterers are able to procure on a competitive basis without commitment to purchasing from small-scale farmers. ‘Home-grown’ school feeding aims to link the increased demand for school feeding goods and services to community stakeholders, including small-holder farmers (mainly subsistence farmers) and women groups. This study aims to evaluate the impact of school feeding sourced from small-holder (mainly subsistence) farmers on school children’s nutrition, health and education as well as on small holder food security in Ghana. Who can participate? Pre-primary and primary school age children (2-15 years of age) and their families, and small holder farmers. What does the study involve? Participating primary schools will be randomly allocated to one of the following three groups: 1. The school feeding programme group, where the standard GSFP is implemented. 2. The ‘home-grown’ school feeding (HGSF+) group, where the GSFP is implemented in addition to training of community-based organizations and local government. 3. The control group, where the intervention will be implemented two years later. Half of the HGSF+ schools will also be randomly assigned to receive food fortification (the HGSF++ group). Data will be collected from children aged 5 to 15 in all of the groups, including blood samples, demographic and education characteristics of the children, and characteristics of the parents. What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? School feeding programmes have been shown to support the education, health and nutrition of school children. The Government of Ghana will benefit from the findings in terms of informing the scale-up of the national programme. The participants will find out about their hemoglobin levels and parasite infection status. Overall, the study involves very low risks for participants. The risks are related to the quality of the food service delivered by the national school feeding programme. Risks involve food hygiene, sanitation and preparation-related issues. The study will examine these risks in detail and also identify and test strategies to reduce these risks. The anemia measurement and blood film preparation will involve finger pricking that will cause some discomfort, but no major risks are associated with this procedure. Where is the study run from? Imperial College London (UK) When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for? June 2013 to June 2015 Who is funding the study? Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) Who is the main contact? 1. Dr Lesley Drake ([email protected]) 2. Dr Elisabetta Aurino ([email protected])

Critère d'inclusion

• School health and nutrition

Liens

• ictrp
• isrctn