Institutional lessons from the partnership to improve food safety management and livelihoods of street food vendors and consumers in Ghana

The growth in urban populations in Ghana offers both opportunities and risks for resource-poor groups in urban and peri-urban environments. One important opportunity has been the increase in sale and patronage of street-vended foods (SVFs). However, the livelihoods of these street-food vendors, their raw material input suppliers as well as the health of consumers could be jeopardized if problems of food safety are not addressed. This paper emanates from a project executed in 1999/2000 to establish whether food hazards occur in some popular Ghanaian foods sold along the streets of Accra and establish the contributions street-vended foods were making to the economy of Ghana. The coalition team formed was made up of partners from different interest groups. Conflicts resulting from vested interests involving key coalition partners in the project became evident and were addressed. A key lesson from the project is that while key partners may have all the technical capabilities to ensure the success of the project, their poor inter-personal relationships may present a major setback to the progress, timely execution and realization of the project’s goals. The ability of coalition members and the project leaders to effectively manage such conflicts was a key step in realizing the success of the project. Finally, it was also learnt that an unwieldy size of partnership impedes the smooth execution of the project