Stakeholder Engagement and Launch of Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition Project

Ghana’s fight against malnutrition is no longer an abstract policy debate, it is about the height of the child in Tamale whose growth has stalled, the anaemic mother in Mamprobi who struggles through her market day, and the fast-growing tide of obesity that sneaks up on urban families.

Recognising this urgency, WOMEC, backed by the Eleanor Crook Foundation
brought 39 stakeholders together on at the Tomreik Hotel in Accra to launch the Nourish Ghana project. The gathering drew directors from three ministries, editors from
five national media houses, frontline CSO activists and nutrition researchers who have spent
years counting the hidden costs of a poor diet.
From the very first panel, two truths rang clear: (1) Ghana already has pockets of world class
expertise, and (2) those pockets rarely speak to each other in the same room.

The event therefore served as both a reality check and an instant accelerator. Participants agreed that without a National Nutrition Council to marshal ministries, budgets and data, well intentioned programmes will keep missing the mark. They also wrestled with the numbers: malnutrition drains an estimated 6.4 % of our GDP each year, far more than we spend on fixing the problem.

Seven headline recommendations emerged:
1. Create the Council within the next budget cycle,
2. Commission a full costing of a multisectoral nutrition plan,
3. Ring fence funding for fortified staples,
4. Expand the Food and Nutrition Intelligence System (FANIS) to all sixteen regions,
5. Strengthen research–policy linkages through quarterly ‘evidence cafés’,
6. Prioritise women of reproductive age in social protection schemes, and
7. Build a media coalition to keep nutrition stories on the front page rather than in the
footnotes.

The meeting closed on a hopeful note: 22 concrete pledges were signed ranging from the
Ghana News Agency’s promise to syndicate monthly nutrition features, to NDPC’s
commitment to embed food systems targets in the next Medium Term Development Plan. A
joint work plan covering the next twelve months was endorsed on the spot, and partners
agreed to reconvene in April 2026 with a public score card of progress. If the energy in the
hall is any indication, Nourish Ghana is poised to turn good intentions into measurable
change for every child, every mother, and every community that calls this country home.