Giving Compass' Take:

• In comparison to other African countries, Ghana has lower rates of undernourishment and malnutrition.  However, Ghana still needs to address other food and nutrition issues such as poor diversity in diet and anemia. 

• Ghana is doing better in relation to the African average, but what is being done to address the issues with food security that are prevalent in the country and the pockets that do still suffer from malnutrition?

• Read about tracking children's health in Africa. 

While 6 million Ghanaians (21 percent of the population) live in rural poverty, when it comes to food and nutrition security (FNS) the country performs relatively better than its African neighbors. For example, according to the Brookings Ending Rural Hunger database, only 4 percent of Ghanaians are likely to be exposed to undernourishment, compared to the region’s 20 percent. Only 51 percent of Ghanaians lack enough money to buy food, compared to 54 percent of people in the region.

Average dietary energy supply adequacy, which is the dietary energy supply as a percentage of the average dietary energy requirement, is 142 percent compared to the African average of 114 percent. When it comes to malnutrition, Ghana also has lower rates of under-five wasting and stunting than the region as well (Figure 1). And on a global level, Ghana ranks 27 out of 115 developing countries when it comes to the calorie gap.

There are some indicators, though, in which Ghana performs poorly. For instance, Ghanaians get 66 percent of their calories from staples compared to 62 percent of Africans, signaling a poor diversity in diet. Anemia is another key FNS challenge for Ghana with performing worse than average, as 76.5 percent of children under five nationally have anemia (88 percent in the northern Ghana) compared to the sub-Saharan African average of 60 percent. Anemia in the early stages of life leads to severe negative consequences on development of children even after treatment. The result is a negative effect on human capital and, consequently, the future sustainability of economic growth.

While Ghana performs better than the African average on undernourishment, stunting, and wasting, concentrated pockets of these still exist in Northern Ghana. But when we compare Ghana to the African average, Ghana is in a much better position in relation to food and nutritional security.

Read the full article about the food and nutrition challenges facing Ghana by Francis Mulangu at Brookings.