The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has inaugurated Technical and Steering committees for Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA) with the aim of to gauging and measuring the extent of food insecurity in the country.
The committee’s assessment will further assist in the identification of ‘hot spots’ of food and nutrition insecurity in the country and the districts that are lagging in improving food security and reducing malnutrition.
The committees are therefore expected to present their report by March 2021 to guide policy makers in fashioning out food and nutrition programmes.
During the launch of the committees in Accra, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, indicated that, the report of CFSVA would guide the government in understanding the prevailing condition of food security in the country.
“The data generated will provide the basis for reviving the quarterly Food and Nutrition Monitoring System,” he noted.
“The report will also help us to identify areas that are vulnerable to food insecurity so that contingency programmes can be targeted at them,” he said.
It expected of the 11-member committee that will be chaired by Ms Abena Osei-Akoto of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), to map out areas and people who are moderately or severely food insecure in Ghana and analyze the underlying causes of food insecurity.
Other members of the committee are Mr Peter Takyi Peprah, who is also from the GSS and the project consultant, Mr John Notey of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr Godsway Banini also of MOFA and Mr John Sitor (WFP).
Also, Mr. Seth Asante of the International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI), Mr Sena Amewu, also of the IFPRI, Mr Ben Treveh of the World Food Programme and Mr Bright Elorm Doviavu of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) are part of the committee.
The rest are Mr. Jefferson Attipoe of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Mr Williams Massaoud, the International Consultant.
Strides made
Country Director for World Food Programme, Ms Rukia Yacoub, indicated that, Ghana had made strides in reducing malnutrition, hunger and food insecurity in the past two decades.
She also commended the country for meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal One by reducing poverty by over 50 per cent.
But analysis by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicates that even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality was on the rise and was therefore undermining the poverty reduction effort and holding back economic growth.
Standards Surveys
According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey Six, (GLSS 6), poverty in Ghana declined from 51.7 per cent in 1992 to 24.2 per cent in 2013.
In 2015, Ghana was recognized for its success in reducing hunger from seven million in the early 1990s to fewer than one million.
The country also became one of the 72 countries that reduced those suffering from hunger to less than five per cent of the population.
The survey is therefore expected to tackle the challenges of food security and map out strategies to address systemic inequalities.
The CFSVA is being conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture with funding from the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
