Professor of Public Health at the University of Ghana, Prof. Richmond Aryeetey, has intimated that Ghana’s food systems governance is broken, which has contributed to the absence of a proper national nutrition policy.
Speaking at his inaugural lecture as a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Aryeetey explained that nutrition, as a key component of a nation’s Human Development Index (HDI), plays a crucial role in shaping food intake among the population, which in turn has a significant impact on the overall health of citizens.
“The health and wealth of a nation centre on nutrition as a key indicator, just as jobs, education, and other social factors count in determining a nation’s progress using the globally accepted Human Development Index,” he said. “The nutrition guidelines or policies in Ghana, in terms of food governance, are broken; as such, there is no adequate intervention by the state to streamline the structure, which has created a significant dent in our health and social protection systems,” he added.
Prof. Aryeetey further noted that for the country to ensure that citizens across all age groups are properly nourished as part of a national strategy, there must be collective political will starting from the Executive level, supported by adequate resources to implement the current Food Policy Guidelines developed by local experts a few years ago.
“The Executive must coordinate and syndicate all relevant ministries and agencies within the nutrition sector, as captured in the Food Policy Guidelines, into a fully fledged and well-resourced National Nutrition Commission directly under the oversight of the President. This will help provide the needed policy interventions to mainstream nutrition within the framework of the National Development Plan going forward,” he stated.
Chairman for the occasion, Professor Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, also called on the government to demonstrate commitment by providing dedicated resources and administrative support to integrate nutrition into holistic national development.
“We need to harness the energies of the various agencies cutting across several ministries to properly position nutrition as a one-stop solution with coordinated and watertight management to strategically address issues of nutrition, which in turn is a sine qua non for a healthy population in today’s fast-changing world where productivity comes at a premium,” he said.
The inaugural lecture was on the theme: “Unpacking the Complexities of Food Systems and Nutrition Governance: A Game of Thrones?”
The event attracted a large audience comprising Fellows and staff of the Academy, as well as selected journalists, students from Accra Academy and Accra Girls’ Senior High School, and members of the general public.
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Story by Sika Togoh | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Gabriel Tecco Mensah
