This nutritionist, Akosua Konadu, just wants to repay Ghana back for the support she had during her education, but the issue of clearance from the government has left her unable to do so like many other healthcare professionals.

She is of the view that the disregard for certain category of health-workers, was manifesting itself in the health status of the citizens.

“As far as I am concerned, I am trained and I want my people to benefit from what I have, as a professional nutritionist. I cant keep my knowledge. I want people to be better. I want malnutrition to end,” she declared on Eyewitness News.

Her remarks came hours after graduate nurses stormed the premises of the Ministry of Health on Monday morning to demand postings to government health facilities.

Monday’s protest by the over 200 graduate nurses was the latest attempt by healthcare professionals, ranging from physician assistants bonded diploma nurses and midwives, to draw government’s attention to the need for posting.

Ms. Konadu, who was speaking on the Point Blank segment on Eyewitness News alongside Richard Osei Yeboah, the President of the National Health Students, said her profession was in need of more support.

She has been seeking employment, but like the other health professionals, she needs clearance from the Ghana Health Service, via the Finance Ministry before getting any placement in health institutions.

“If this advocacy was going on as far as nutritional health was concerned, I think that some of these issues would have been addressed. People are dying of hypertension, stroke and all the non-communicable diseases,” she stated.

“The government will need to absorb these professionals because what is the use if our people can’t benefit from us [nutritionists]. Their taxes somewhat supported us even though we paid fees so what is my use if I have all this information at my disposal and cannot help people and have my people die of simple issues.”

The ‘silent killer’

UNICEF has cited nutrition issues in Ghana as a “silent killer.”

“Too many children in Ghana suffer from health issues stemming from malnutrition which is an underlying cause of one-third of all child deaths. More than one in five children in Ghana is stunted (suffering from chronic malnutrition),” UNICEF has said.

The situation is worse in the Northern Ghana where almost two in every five children are stunted, and more than 80% of children suffer from anaemia.

Ms. Konadu highlighted how ill-equipped Ghana was to fight malnutrition in northern Ghana despite the efforts of a number of NGOs.

“Go to the three northern regions, there are several NGOs in the system but we are not making any impact because the professionals are not on the field. Go to Wa; they have no regional nutritionist, they have no district nutritionists,” she lamented.

Exploitation from private sector

Some of these health professionals try to get busy working in private institutions, but some of them end up getting exploited, according to Ms. Kondadu.

“What you are even due, you are not given. They are taking advantage of professionals. Somebody goes to work from morning to evening and is taking Ghc 400 or GHc 500 a month. It is so bad. A good number of them are taking advantage of the professionals because if the government, who is the mother is failing to do something about the situation, what do you think the private people will do.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The percentage of stunted growth in the region is 36, which is far above the national figure of 22 percent.

This was revealed at the 1st Northern Regional Nutrition conference in Tamale organized by SNV, a Dutch development organization working on the Voice for Change Partnership program.

The forum brought together stakeholders in the region working in the area of food and nutrition.

All the 26 district and regional nutrition officers and some selected media, are brought to discuss ways of tackling the issue of malnutrition in the northern region.

Stunting is impaired physical growth children experience due to poor nutrition, repeated infections, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

Stunting is a disorder that if not corrected early in the first 1000 days, has lasting effects.

Northern region tops in anaemia with 85% as against the national figure of 66%, and stunting with 33% against 19% as the national figure.

The implications of stunting on the national economy are that, children’s cognitive abilities are compromised, their brains tend not to develop well, and this has an impact on enrollment in schools.

Reducing stunting in children also has financial implications, as for instance, research indicates that the cost of hunger that is malnutrition indicators in Ghana, is about 5% of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP).

Mugmin Musah, the programmes director for Grameen Ghana, said to Citi News that the issue of malnutrition requires a collaborative effort across sectors.

“Implications of malnutrition are multi-sectorial and several sectors of the country’s economy are affected. In addressing the issue of nutrition, one has to look at other sectors. Eating good food and living in a filthy environment has serious implications for the person’s health, and therefore one will not be nutritiously secured. Therefore, all stakeholders have to get involved in addressing the issue of nutrition.”

At the end of the conference, a 14-point communique was issued on achieving sustainable results in nutrition interventions in the Northern Region.

The conference was held under the theme ” Achieving Sustainable Results in Nutrition Interventions in Northern Region: Strategies and Workable Actions

The Voice for Change Partnership (V4C) is an evidence-based advocacy programme being implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The programme is for a five period from 2016 to 2020, and it is being implemented in six African countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya and Rwanda.

In Ghana, the programme is focusing on 3 main intervention areas, Food and Nutrition security, Renewal Energy and Water and Sanitation&Hygiene ( WASH).

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By: Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The percentage of stunting in the region is 36%, which is far above the national average of 22%.

This was revealed at a media workshop in the Upper West Regional capital Wa, by SNV, a Netherlands Development Organization working to promote social change through a partnership with the media.

Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

Despite the Region’s status as the food basket of the country, producing enough food for domestic consumption and sale, several children under age five suffer from malnutrition.

Zakaria Abdul Jail, the adviser on nutrition for the SNV’s programme dubbed, “Voice4Change Partnership” explained that the implications of stunting on the health and economy of the country is severe, hence serious attention must be given to it.

“The implications are that if children are stunted, their cognitive abilities are affected, their brains turn not to develop well and this has impact on enrollment in schools. It has impact on the person’s physical development in the future. Reducing stunting alone for Ghana or underweight in general has enormous benefits for Ghana in the sense that we would be reducing public investment in these areas. For instance, there is a report that suggests that the cost of hunger that is malnutrition indicators in Ghana is about 5% of our Gross Domestic Products (GDP). So you can imagine what this amount of our GDP can do to other sectors,” he noted.

The Voice for Change Partnership (V4C), is an evidence-based advocacy programme being implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The programme will run from 2016 to 2020 in some selected countries including Ghana.

In Ghana, the programme is focusing on 3 main intervention areas; Food and Nutrition security, Renewal Energy and Water and Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH).

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Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira citifmonline.com

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The Head of Programs for Grameen Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization, Mr Mugmin Musah told Citi News at the forum that government is not achieving much in addressing nutrition problems due to serious gaps identified in the implementation of government programs on nutrition.

Malnutrition in the Northern Region has been described as alarming and anaemia are the major deficiencies.

Anaemia among children under 5 years is 82% in Northern Region as against 66% on the national level. This was revealed at a national nutrition policy sharing forum organized by Grameen Ghana in Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region under the Voice for Change Partnership Project.

He said even though the government is estimated to spend about GHs4.6 billion annually in addressing child under nutrition alone, key challenges such as over reliance on donor funds and inadequate human resources inhibit the progress in achieving sustained impact.

“It has become necessary to organize this forum because we have realized a lot of gaps in the implementation of nutrition programs of government and we found that the national nutrition policy has become something very important in addressing these gaps.”

“We have noted that there are lots of inconsistencies and insufficient coordination in the implementation of nutrition programs by various stakeholders like NGOs, government departments, and others; everybody is doing his own bit of nutrition and if we don’t organized a forum like this for all stakeholders to fall in line with the policy priorities of government, we are not likely to achieve the objectives set in the national nutrition policy.”

He said the forum sought to empower all stakeholders to understand the nutrition policy priorities of Ghana and to hold government accountable in resource allocation and improved nutrition service delivery.

He said the forum sought to empower all stakeholders to understand the nutrition policy priorities of Ghana and to hold government accountable in resource allocation and improved nutrition service delivery.

The Northern Regional Nutrition Officer, Alhaji Sofo Mutaru who described the situation as worrying called for a coordinating body where all parties involved in nutrition are brought together to form a synergy and share ideas that could guide the activities in order to improve the nutrition situation especially in Northern Ghana.

Some participants at the forum shared with Citi News their views and expectations.

“We have realized that issues of nutrition is a challenge in the region and particularly in Nanumba North District and this forum is important because of the involvement of key stakeholders on nutrition so that we can all participate in monitoring the implementation of the policy. For me personally, I realized that nutrition goes beyond just food security, having enough food to eat doesn’t make one nutrition secured because the good amount of nutrients required to make you healthy maybe lacking and I think it is good for Ghana Health service to step up efforts to educate our people.”

“We should localized our foods to ensure that the proportion of foodstuffs that could give the right nutrients are consumed. It is not always the case that delicious foods are nutritious,” he said.

The forum was organized by Grameen Ghana in partnership with Ghana Health Service and support from SNV, an International non-profit non-governmental organization with funding from the Netherlands Government. The forum is part of the interventions under the Voice for Change Partnership Program.

The forum brought together various stakeholders like women leaders, caterers, farmer networks, Civil society organisations, health workers, education workers, agricultural officers, the Nanumba North district assembly among others.

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By: Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The initiative will among other things bring together stakeholders to identify strategies that specifically pay attention to the poor and marginalized groups affected by malaria and malnutrition.

Speaking at the launch, the First Lady called for a total commitment to the fight against malaria and malnutrition, as it continues to have dire consequences on the nation’s economy and development.

“The burden malaria and malnutrition places on our national economy and development has been well explained over the years, ranging from school and work absenteeism, high health expenditure in the family and burden on the national budget. Although we recognize that these issues have been with us for many years, it is still not acceptable that in this day and age Ghana should lose any child or pregnant woman to Malaria or under-nutrition. I believe that within the existing human and institutional resources available in this country, we can make a significant difference in reducing malnutrition and malaria.”

According to her, the creation of more Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS)  projects, will be key in addressing malnutrition and malaria since it has the ability to reach many malnourished children through household follow-ups and coordination with community health volunteers.

On his part, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, stressed on the need for more public-private partnership in the fight.

According to him, statistics available to the service indicates that in 2016, the country recorded 10.4 million suspected cases of Out Patient Department (OPD) for malaria, which is an increase from the 10.1 million suspected cases recorded in 2015, representing about 2.5% increase.

It therefore translates that, approximately 28,607 cases are seen each day in all health facilities across the country.

Other agencies present at the launch including the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture, also pledged their support in tackling the situation.

The event was attended by the Deputy Minister for Health, Tina Mensah, Deputy Minister for Agriculture William Agyapong Quaitoo, the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Felix Anyah and other dignitaries.

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By: Felicia Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The project, known as “Enhanced Nutrition and Value Chain” (ENVAC) is being implemented with funding from Global Affairs Canada.

It offers an innovative market-based approach to tackling malnutrition and under it about 10,000 smallholder maize, soybean, cowpea, and millet farmers in five regions – Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West have been targeted to be linked to industrial agro-processors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”hsm6ca5Dik1cp5nLXRUEXG4rzl9fa5mI”]Ms. Magdalena Owusu Moshi, acting WFP Representative and Country Director, said grains and cereals from the farmers would be used to produce specialized nutritious food by Premium Foods Limited and Yedent Food Processing Company for distribution to pregnant, women, nursing mothers and children aged between six and 23 months.

People living with HIV/AIDS and on antiretroviral therapy, are also going to benefit.

She indicated that the goal was to give strong support to the government to help achieve zero hunger – the Sustainable Development Goal ‘2’ by year 2030.

She said although significant progress had been made to bring down stunting to 19 per cent at the national level, the condition continued to be high in the three Northern Regions.

One in three children in these places is stunted and faces physical and cognitive challenges which could prevent them from achieving their full potential.

The WFP Director said the success of the project would provide a model which could be replicated by the government and other development partners to achieve zero hunger nationwide.

Ms. Heather Cameron, the Canadian High Commissioner, said the initiative formed part of Canada’s larger effort to promote food security, nutrition and agricultural development in Ghana.

“By working with farmers and the agro-industry, this project will support the government to increase manufacturing and create jobs in the agriculture sector”.

ENVAC, she noted, would help to ensure the availability, affordability and consumption of more nutritious foods.

Mr. George Oduro, a Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, hailed the project, as a bold step in support of the promotion of national food security.

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Source: GNA

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Dubbed the Foresight Report on Africa, the report, titled ‘Food Systems and Diets: Facing the Challenges of the 21^st Century’, was launched by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition at the 7^th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS).

[contextly_sidebar id=”kTCfCOjpfgTG0ws7up3HKdUMj2D8C6HS”]The theme for this year’s celebration was: ‘Investing in Food Systems for Improving Child Nutrition: Key to Africa’s Renaissance’.

A former Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, in his presentation on ‘Scaling up Nutrition in Ghana’, said that although Ghana has performed creditably well in reducing the rate of malnutrition, it had to do more to improve the gains made.

According to him, many children in Ghana have short attention spans because of malnutrition. He said this could be translated to the academic performance of most Ghanaian students.

An Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Ghana, Professor Matilda Steiner-Asiedu, in an interview with citifmonline.com, lamented that recent trends suggested an increasing phenomenon of wrong food choices leading to obesity.

“We are seeing this not only in adults, but also in children. Ghana is also facing a stunning rate of about 9%.Now all this is due to wrong food choices and the quality of food eaten. We can’t talk about nutrition and leave out food safety. We need all hands on deck to tackle it holistically in order to reorient our people to make healthy food choices,” she said.

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Joyce Aryee who officially launched the report charged the media and the African Union (AU) to massively share the knowledge contained in the report in order to make it available to all and influence positive action.

“The knowledge in this document must be implemented. It is not just one person’s role, but each individual’s responsibility to make sure that this knowledge is disseminated and used at all levels because we can no longer live with a crisis that can be resolved.

We don’t have to have a nutritional crisis. What we need is a nutritional agenda that gives our people nourishing food,” she also said.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition is an independent group of influential experts with a commitment to tackling global challenges in food and nutrition security. It aims at providing guidance to decision-makers, particularly governments, and to inform and promote agricultural and food policies, as well as investment for improved nutrition in low and middle-income countries.

The Global Panel is jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Read the full report here.

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By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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