By
Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Jan 22, GNA –
Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Minister for Planning has said despite the
commendable progress made in reducing malnutrition over the last three decades,
Ghana still suffers from the triple burden of malnutrition, under-nutrition,
over nutrition and micro-nutrition deficiencies.
He said this burden
had yielded direct and indirect causes to individuals, families and the nation
as a whole.
Prof Gyan-Baffour
said this in Accra during the Maiden National Multi-stakeholder Nutrition Forum
on the theme “Evidence-Informed Nutrition Policies and Programmes: Now and
Beyond”.
The one-day forum
was jointly organised and hosted by the University of Ghana, School of Public
Health; the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), College
of Health Sciences and the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Department
of Family and Community Health.
The rest are the
National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI) Ghana Strategy Support Programme, the SNV
Netherlands Development Organisation and the Ghana Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics.
The meeting convened
stakeholders from across various sectors working on food security, nutrition,
food environment and nutrition advocacy.
Findings from five
nutrition, food environment and food security research initiatives were shared
to engage participants in the dissemination process, validating research
findings, and policy implications.
The Minister noted
that improving nutrition was critical to increasing child survival and ensuring
good health for the people of Ghana; stating that “there is ample evidence to
suggest that investing in nutrition is good economics because stunted people make
stunted economies”.
He said Ghana’s
course of hunger in Africa study revealed that the estimated annual cost
associated with the effect of child malnutrition or undernutrition amounted to
over $2.6 billion, representing 6.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic
product (GDP).
He said in addition,
overweight and obesity was increasingly becoming a burden; especially among
women.
“Well, men also have
obesity. In Ghana, when men have obesity, they call it pot-belly. They think it
is great, but certainly it is not.”
Prof Gyan-Baffour
said the Planning Ministry was mandated to play a key role in linking the
technical output of planning to the necessary political decision-making
platform, which was given expression through the public investment programmes
and the national budget.
“The Planning
Ministry is required to assist in coordinating national policies, harmonising
intended actions into concerted plans and programmes, and liaising with the
respective sector heads and Office of the President in developing a
corresponding public investment portfolio for implementation and plan reviews,”
he said.
“It is also to
ensure that the national development trajectory falls in tandem with and be
guided by international development targets such as the Sustainable Development
Goals and the African Agenda 2063”.
Former President
John Agyekum Kufuor, in a speech read on his behalf noted that evidence-based
interventions directly improved nutrition, where prioritised and implemented.
He said additional
evidence also showed that the benefits from improving nutrition far outweighed
their costs; stating that “it is therefore commendable that national academics
and research institutions are collaborating with developmental partners to
generate products to support the implementation of the national nutrition
policy”.
Mr Ron Strikker, the
Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, said the Kingdom of the Netherlands would continue
to support Ghana in its efforts to combat malnutrition.
Mr Eric Banye, the
Country Programme Coordinator, SNV Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP)
Programme, said the V4CP, which was being implemented by the SNV in
collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),
was being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said the V4CP
sought to generate evidence and build the capacities of civil society
organisations to be able to use the evidence and build advocacy.
GNA