Round table held in Ghana to engage parliamentarians on anemia and malnutrition

On 8 September 2015, the Ghana Parliamentary Caucus against Hunger and Malnutrition joined civil society for a round table to discuss how progress can be made towards achieving a hunger-free and well-nourished society. The caucus is a voluntary group of parliamentarians composed from both majority and minority groups committed to support the agenda of achieving a hunger free society in Ghana by 2025. The event was organised with the support of World Vision Ghana.

The main objective of the dialogue was to share with parliamentarians, the situation of Ghana’s food security and nutrition and to provide an opportunity to incubate new ideas and to identify bottlenecks in the adoption of a national nutrition policy

At the event Kate Quarshie, from the Nutrition Department of the Ghana Health Service, identified anemia as one of the biggest nutritional disorders in Ghana affecting about 66 per cent of children and explained that if the country tried to reduce anemia by half, it would improve productivity and have good consequences on national development agenda. She also shared that Ghana faced a double burden of malnutrition and called on the government to prioritize nutrition issues.

The National Director of World Vision Ghana, Hubert Charles, said malnutrition was estimated to be the underlying cause of 55 per cent of mortality cases among children under five years. He said “Nutrition plays a critical role in human resource development since deficiencies in essential nutrients led to malnutrition, which affects an individual’s mental and physical state, resulting in poor health and poor work performance”. He shared that a hungry malnourished child may have mild to serious learning abilities, and thus, malnutrition undermined investments in education, health and other developmental sectors.

The Country Director of World Food Programme (WFP), Ms Mutinta Chimuka, pledged her organisation’s unflinching support for the programme and said the WFP was assisting government by providing nutritional foods at health facilities in the three northern regions to children under five.

The Hunger Alliance Ghana (HAG), a non-governmental organisation, told the Ghana News Agency that the parliamentarian involvement was a vital ingredient in getting the necessary bold political commitment to fight hunger and malnutrition in Ghana. They believe that political leaders were becoming more and more conscious of their responsibility to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition at the regional level and that these efforts must be sustained by more determined political leaders to realise this vision at the national level. The HAG commends the creation of the parliamentarian caucus and Nana Ayim Poakwa, Coordinator of HAG, shared that round table had provided an opportunity for Parliamentarians to demonstrate their commitment to the fight against hunger, poverty and malnutrition by sharing with the media and other stakeholders their desire to provide alternative solutions to address food security and nutrition challenges.  

Learn more: Ghana Business News, Citifmonline, Ghana Web