Ghana to scale up interventions to improve nutrition

Ms Wilhelmina Okwabi, Deputy Director, Nutrition Department of Ghana Health Service, on Friday noted that Ghana has not done well in terms of scaling up interventions to improve upon the nutritional status of the citizenry.

She however admitted that, there have been pockets of success in various areas of interventions.

Ms Okwabi said, there are evidence of the increasing rate of malnutrition and obesity particularly among children as well as other nutritional related illnesses such as diabetes among the younger population.

Ms Okwabi, who was addressing a West African Health Organisation (WAHO) Peer Reviewing Meeting in Accra on Strengthening National Nutrition in West Africa, called for stakeholder support and political commitment towards the implementation of nutritional policies and programmes, to reduce malnutrition rates among the populace.

She said, challenges such as effective implementation and sustained impact backed by political commitment and fair share of the national budget remained elusive.

Ms Okwabi noted that, although nutrition was a critical item in the development status of a country, it had remained trapped in a “low priority cycle” in most sub Saharan African countries including Ghana.

She emphasised that, malnutrition’s complex determinants and its low visibility, as well as lack of political commitment and weak institutional and operational capacities at all levels of government were some of the biggest constraints.

Ms Okwabi explained that, the South-South Peer Review initiative which was sponsored by the World Bank and led by the WAHO of ECOWAS is aimed at enhancing policies and programmes through South-South exchange and learning.

The programme is being piloted by Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal and The Gambia.

Participating countries were expected to exchange visits, with delegations making field trips to operational sites with focus on conducting a “SWOT” (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of host countries.

The areas of focus include the policy context of a country, its programme performance, management capacity, flow of funds and financial management, institutional arrangements and financial capacity.

Mr Abdoulaye Ka, Head of a four-man Senegalese team on a visit to Ghana, commended Ghana’s draft nutrition policy, saying it was multi-sectoral and addressed almost all areas of nutrition, except for some few loop-holes.

He outlined the various shortfalls identified in the policy as lack of a clearly stated policy vision and objectives and the absence of clearly identified key indicators so as to target the issue from the correct approach.

Mr Ka expressed the need for updates of key indicators to give a clear picture of the nutritional situation of the country, stressing that, the policy must clearly identify major stakeholders and their responsibilities towards achieving quality nutrition.

He recommended strong advocacy in the timely release of government funding to implement nutritional programmes, adding: “You (Ghana) need to sensitise the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on the importance of nutrition in children as a major development indicator.”

The team went on a field trip to areas including the Nyanyano salt bank to observe a pilot salt iodisation project, the Nutrition Project site at Gomoa, where a successful training of Community nutrition volunteers had been on-going, Swedru Government Hospital and Princess Marie Louis Hospital in Accra.

Mr Ka, expressed satisfaction at the level of integration of nutrition into the care of persons living with HIV and AIDS in both hospitals without discrimination and the well developed communication materials on good nutrition.

He however suggested improvement in monitoring and follow-ups to ensure sustenance of the programme in Ghana.**