The Ghana Statistical Service and the World Food Programme have joined forces to address food security and nutrition challenges in Ghana.
The two institutions solidified their commitment by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday 14th August in Accra.
The purpose of the MoU is to develop a strategic partnership for collaborative evidence generation on food security and nutrition to inform national policy and programmes in Ghana.
The MoU, which will be effective until December 2028, includes the following key activities aimed to promote the generation of evidence-based data on food security and nutrition:
1. Development of innovative methodologies and technologies for high-frequency data collection on food security and nutrition such as mobile surveys, remote sensing, and digital platforms.
2. Building capacity on data collection, analysis, and dissemination, and evidence-based decision-making. Capacity building will be carried out in collaboration with academia and will target government agencies, community leaders, and other key stakeholders.
3. Generation of data to support enhanced targeting and selection of beneficiaries for food security and social protection programs, to ensure that interventions reach the most vulnerable populations.
4. Raising public awareness of food security and nutrition through dissemination events that will include workshops, digital media, and community outreach.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, highlighted the importance of “efforts geared at ensuring a convergence across different statistical measures of food self-sufficiency, food security, food insecurity, and nutrition” in her remarks preceding the signing of the MoU.
Ms. Barbara Clemens, the Country Director for the World Food Programme, also indicated that “ensuring food security and improving nutrition in Ghana is not just a commitment, but a necessity for sustainable development.
The generation of robust evidence is vital in guiding our interventions and shaping policies that make a tangible difference and optimising our impact, especially at a time when resources are increasingly shrinking.
WFP’s collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Services is pivotal in this effort, as it allows us to leverage
accurate data and insights to better understand the challenges and opportunities in food security and nutrition across the country. Together, we can build a stronger foundation for a healthier, more resilient Ghana”.
Two of the main activities to be completed in the first year of the MoU are the conduct of the third national Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA) in 2025 and the rollout of the mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM) in Ghana.
The CFSVA aims to provide up-to-date information on food security at the household level for the identification of vulnerable areas and populations, for assessment of trends based on results from previous CFSVA, for development of targeted interventions, and to support informed decision-making. The 2020 CFSVA report can be downloaded from https://statsghana.gov.gh.
The mVAM leverages mobile technology to remotely monitor household food security and nutrition, and food market-related trends in real-time, providing high-frequency, gender-disaggregated and operationally relevant data that supports decision-making. The results from the mVAM are available on the Hunger-Live-Monitoring platform https://hungermap.wfp.org/.
The Ghana Statistical Service is the lead government agency responsible for
collecting, compiling, analysing, publishing, and disseminating official statistics in Ghana.
The World Food Programme is the United Nations’ frontline agency in the global fight against hunger.
Sheila Satori Mensa
