A new study has found that the cost of a nutritious diet is too high for the majority of pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and adolescent girls in Ghana, making it hard for them to meet their nutritional needs.
The study, conducted by the Fill the Nutrition Gap (FNG) Ghana team, used a Cost of Diet (CoD) analysis to compare the cost of nutritious diets for different members of a household (HH) in two regions of Ghana: Northern and Brong Ahafo (BA).
The study found that in the Northern Region, a pregnant woman or adolescent girl would have to spend about 65 percent of the household’s (HH’s) budget to afford a nutritious diet, while in the BA region a pregnant woman would need almost half the HH’s budget. The study did not include an adolescent girl in the BA Region.
The study also showed that pregnant women and adolescent girls have higher nutrient requirements than children and men in the HH, which results in higher costs for their diet. The study highlights the challenges faced by pregnant women and adolescent girls in Ghana to access adequate nutrition.
Relying on data from some selected households in the Northern and Brong Ahafo Regions, the team calculated the CoD using an extended food list from the two regions – comprising 58 commodities with market prices collected between November 2016 and January 2017 by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in collaboration with Indicators of Affordability of Nutritious Diets in Africa (IANDA).
Looking at the two regions as a whole, the daily cost is GH¢9.16 for a 5 person HH in the Northern Region and GH¢8.82 for a 4 person HH in the BA Region. Regarding cost for the same HH size in both regions, the staple-adjusted nutritious (SNUT) diet is around 30 percent more expensive in BA.
Overall, the previous CoD analyses in 2015 and those shared in 2017 showed that the cost of nutritious diets are relatively high compared to a diet that only meets energy needs – which a substantial proportion of the population cannot afford.
In order to improve nutrition access for the key target groups (children aged 12-23 months, adolescent girls and PLW (lactating woman with a child aged between 6-23 months), four types potential interventions were modelled to reduce the CoD: and these include giving out locally available nutritious food through vouchers, subsidising the market price (by 50 percent), cash transfers and selling food commodities at the same market price.
At the end of implementing potential interventions, the most effective for children (6-23 months) was that of the seven specialised nutritious foods modelled, based on analysis of local markets, vouchers for Kidifeed led to the greatest reduction in cost of SNUT – from GH¢0.30 to 0.11 in the Northern Region and GH¢0.61 to 0.13 in the BA.
For PLW in the North, vouchers for Super Cereal Plus (SC+) reduced the cost of SNUT from GH¢3.89 to GH¢3.13. In the BA Region, vouchers for locally available nutritious foods (fruit, vegetables, dried fish and eggs) reduced the cost of SNUT from GH¢5.89 to 3.66.
Lastly, for adolescent girls in the North where the average size is larger, vouchers for Multi-Micronutrients Tablets (MMTs) reduced cost of SNUT from GH¢6.99 to GH¢2.53.
To bring a lasting solution to the problems identified by end of the CoD analysis conducted in the country, the FNG Ghana team made some recommendations which include programme and policy measures to address access, availability and demand for the nutrients and nutritious food.
According to the team, a key overarching recommendation is for Cabinet to approve and enact the National Nutrition Policy – and successfully launching the policy could act as a catalyst to implementing a series of interventions aimed at addressing the nutrient gap in vulnerable groups throughout the country.
Other recommendations include the need to strengthen and improve menu-planning for a healthy diet in the School Feeding Programme; fostering public-private partnerships to improve availability and affordability of nutritious food for key target groups through the market; increase access to markets by improving road infrastructure; and increase access to agricultural inputs for smallholder farmers
Meanwhile, they suggested that apart from selecting cost-effective options for improving nutrient intake, acceptability and demand for the different foods by the target population should also be ensured.
Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) is a situational analysis and decision-making tool developed by World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with UC Davis, IFPRI, EPICENTRE and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to identify context-specific strategies for improving the nutritional intake of vulnerable populations, especially during children’s first 1,000 days.
