On 25 March 2011, the Republic of Ghana joined the SUN Movement with a letter of commitment from the Minister of Health. At the time, Ghana had established a multi-stakeholder platform, the Cross-Sectoral Planning Group (CSPG), under the National Development Planning Commission. At the policy level, the Ghana National Nutrition Policy was in draft form and through the CSPG, Ghana was working to establish a baseline and identify trends in nutrition financing.
Ghana’s multi-stakeholder platform (MSP), the Nutrition Cross-Sectoral Planning Group (CSPG), continues to expand, bringing together ten sectors today. The CSPG works at the national level under the auspices of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The three northern regions have regional nutrition MSPs, and plans are in place to roll-out the MSPs to all regions and districts. All SUN Networks, except a Business Network – which is currently being established – are up and running, including the recently revived SUN Donor Network. A priority for the period ahead is to form a media network. The appointment of nutrition champions, including the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Chief of Staff in the Office of the President, is currently being discussed.
Last updated: November 2017
New members, particularly from nutrition-sensitive government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have played a more active role in CSPGs activities over the last year.
Opportunities are available to strengthen communication between members of the CSPG and the six technical working groups. CSPG is in the process of strengthening coordination with a number of measures and has developed and shared a roadmap as a basis for aligning actions.
The capacity building working group of the CSPG has initiated the development of a capacity building plan. The plan will take into consideration, various capacity assessments undertaken in the nutrition sector, including a landscape analysis on “Country Readiness to Accelerate the Reduction of Maternal and Child Under-nutrition” by WHO, a functional assessment by UNREACH among others, and capacity building objectives in sector and district nutrition scale-up plans.
The CSO platform has regular intra-network meetings with as many as 140 Non-Governmental Organisations who are committed to scaling up nutrition. The CSOs have also documented the nutrition governance coordination mechanism in Ghana.
Media advocacy is very strong with regular programming on radio, television and mobile phones. CSOs have also begun engaging parliamentarians to raise the importance of nutrition.
Last updated: October 2015
A long-term Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) Strategy has been developed, which will be used to review the draft National Nutrition Policy. Pro-nutrition legal frameworks have been put in place to cover areas such as the marketing of breast-milk substitutes, although their enforcement is deemed weak. Maternity protection laws have also been enacted, with advocacy taking place for the extension of maternal and parental leave. Efforts are underway to develop a nutrition planning manual to enhance the capacity of sectors and districts for nutrition planning.
Last updated: November 2017
Last updated: October 2015
Nutrition is a key component of the Government’s medium-term development policy framework (2018-2021). A matrix of policy objectives and strategies – with roles and responsibilities – has been developed, with a common results framework (CRF) that will be used to track progress of its implementation. National annual progress reports of the medium-term development policy framework will track progress of nutrition indicators. The SUN Donor Network developed a mapping framework of its members’ programmes in March 2017
Last updated: November 2017]
Last updated: October 2015
A tracking of nutrition spending has been done for 2014 and 2015, but not yet completed for 2016. Financial data gaps for some sectors still prevail,as is the case for off-budget donor expenditures. The low conversion of pledges to disbursements, both domestically and from external sources, is a challenge for the SUN Movement in Ghana. The current planning processes at district and sectoral levels will bring about costed plans to support resource mobilisation and advocacy for increased financial resources amongst parliamentarians and other politicians. The setting up of a nutrition sector working group as part of Ghana’s architecture for development cooperation will also help streamline nutrition spending and ensure activities are in line with government priorities.
Last updated: November 2017
The UN system continues to play a technical and financial role in supporting government through the UNDAF. CSO’s also play a supportive role in lobbying parliamentarians to provide more funding to nutrition.
Last updated: October 2015
Agyeman Badu Akosa
Profressor National Development and Planning Commission (under the Vice President's office)
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