Parliament urged to act on growing malnutrition crisis

Nutrition experts have implored Ghana's Parliament to take urgent action, emphasizing the need to fulfill international nutrition commitments and tackle the country's escalating malnutrition crisis. A central recommendation from a high-level roundtable engagement with parliamentarians in Accra was the inclusion of essential nutrition commodities, such as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for children and Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for pregnant women, under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The roundtable, organized by Women, Media and Change (WOMEC) as part of its “Nourish Ghana Project” with support from the Eleanor Crook Foundation, aimed to foster strategic dialogue on sustainable nutrition financing. This initiative seeks to improve maternal and child nutrition outcomes. At the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris last year, Ghana pledged to invest six million dollars annually in essential nutrition commodities, a commitment that remains unfulfilled.

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Without reliable commodities, guidelines cannot translate into treatment or prevention. Parliament can help make RUTF and MMS routinely available, affordable and accountable through the NHIS and domestic financing.

Currently, RUTF and MMS are largely dependent on donor funding and are distributed only in specific project areas. Olivia Timpo, Deputy Director of Nutrition at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), issued a stark warning: Ghana risks critical stock-outs and a reversal of hard-won gains in combating malnutrition if sustainable domestic financing is not secured, especially in light of declining global aid. She stressed that without reliable commodity access, treatment and prevention guidelines are ineffective.

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Treatment and prevention commodities protect Ghana’s human capital. We can choose to pay now for nutrition, or pay later for illness, poor learning and lost productivity.

Timpo highlighted the significant burden of malnutrition, with approximately 68,517 children under five developing Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) annually and 51% of pregnant women reporting at health facilities being anaemic. These conditions contribute to preventable child deaths, low birth weight, impaired cognitive development, and increased healthcare expenditures. She urged Parliament to enhance oversight on nutrition funding, commodity availability, and treatment coverage in preparation for the 2026 budget cycle, stating, "Treatment and prevention commodities protect Ghana’s human capital. We can choose to pay now for nutrition, or pay later for illness, poor learning and lost productivity."

Mrs. Anatu Anne Seidu Bogobiri, Deputy Chief Executive for Finance and Investment at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), acknowledged the necessity of transitioning from temporary interventions to routine, sustainable nutrition programs. She affirmed the NHIA's readiness to actively participate in discussions, exploring how health financing can more effectively support child and maternal health outcomes and leveraging data to enhance nutrition services.

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We at the NHIA are prepared to be part of the conversation in a stronger way. We are looking at how health financing can better support child and maternal health outcomes and exploring our data to see how we can improve nutrition services.