Mainstream child nutrition, food security issues in long-term development plan
Speakers at a public forum held in Accra have suggested the mainstreaming of child nutrition and food security issues into the long-term national development plan.
Advertisement
They have also called for increased inter-sectorial collaborations and sufficient national investment to reduce malnutrition and its negative effect on national development.
The call was made yesterday at the launch of a report dubbed “Cost of Hunger in Africa” (COHA) under the auspices of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), with collaboration from the World Food Programme (WFP), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and the United Nations’ (UN) Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Key stakeholders
Present at the launch were key stakeholders drawn from ministries, departments and agencies (MMDAs), civil society organisations (CSOs), representatives of political parties and private entities.
The COHA report formed part of the second phase of an initiative by the collaborating bodies to research into the causes of malnutrition in Africa, its negative effects on African economies, and to recommend comprehensive means of dealing with it.
The initiative started in Ghana in 2012 and the report showed that 37 per cent of the current adult population in Ghana suffered from stunted growth during their childhood, while 10.5 per cent of all repetitions of students and pupils in school were associated with stunting.
Eliminating malnutrition
Speaking at the event, the Vice Chairperson of NDPC, Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, said issues of food security and malnutrition ought to be considered as a national development challenge rather than a health issue.
“Eliminating stunting is not an option but an imperative issue, because stunted children today mean a stunted economy,” she said.
She made reference to the COHA report and observed that stunting had a negative effect on educational attainment, human resource development and the productivity of the labour force.
In that regard, she called on all stakeholders and government agencies to adopt a holistic approach to improve child nutrition and food security.
The Director of the WFP, Mr Thomas Yanga, observed that the best way to deal with malnutrition was for investment to be increased by the government.
“The cost of investing in child nutrition is high but the price for not doing anything is costly and detrimental to national development,” he said.
Mr Yanga said the ministries of Education, Finance, Health, Agriculture and other related agencies, ought to have coordinated efforts to improve nutrition for children, especially within the first 1,000 days after they were born.
Equip NDPC
The national Scaling-up Nutrition (SUN) focal person at the NDPC, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, said malnutrition had the potential to destroy the long-term national development goals and agenda 2063 if multi-faceted strategies were not adopted.
He said there was the need for the NDPC, the mandated state agency, to be equipped with logistics and human resources to work towards eliminating malnutrition.
Way forward
In a panel discussion at the event, the deputy ministers of Finance, Health and Agriculture; Ms Mona Kortey, Dr Victor Bampoe and Dr Yakubu Ahmed Alhassan respectively shared their views, buttressing the point that collaboration by the ministries and other stakeholders was pivotal to improving child nutrition.
