The President of the Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Professor Kingsley Kwadwo Asare Pereko is calling on the government to establish a body that will be responsible for nutrition in the country

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Conference of Nutrition and Dietetics 2023, Professor Pereko observed that the health sector alone is unable to handle nutrition issues.

“The country needs a body that will oversee nutrition because it is a cost-cutting issue.

“And no one sector can say that I am effectively going to tackle nutrition. We need a body or a commission; call it anything that is going to look at all the intercession and play a leadership role.

“For the time being, the National Development Planning Committee has supported bringing stakeholders together and the question I ask myself is how binding are the policies that are developed,” he said.

The Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (GAND) is a professional association representing the professional, educational and public interests of licensed and Registered Dietitians and Nutritionists in Ghana.

This year’s Conference of Nutrition and Dietetics is under the theme Promoting Sustainable Food Systems for Nutrition and Development; Challenges and Opportunities for Capacity strengthening

He also mentioned that the systems should be put in place to manage the pricing of food.

“People who can not afford healthy food globally has risen to 3 billion and Ghana is no exception. We are not able to afford healthier food options partly because of the pricing.

“And many things go in to pricing. One has to do with production; how well are we subsidizing for farmers to produce healthier food options

“How well is government funding agriculture and how well are we funding research. All these are pieces and components of what will help improve the price of our food.”

Public health Nutrition Specialist at the University of Ghana, Professor Richmond Aryeetey bemoaned the lack of nutritionists in the district health facilities.

“There are some districts that you go to and there is one nutrition officer, now at least we have one in each district.

“But we don’t have enough to post in these districts and then dietitians; the government is not even hiring enough because they don’t have resources to hire them, but I think we have to be intentional.

“If we want to do it like the nutritionists so that we can have at least one dietitian in every district,” he suggested.