Healthy Diets for Healthier lives Project

Civil Society Organizations Engagement Meeting on Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives Project (HD4HL)

Background

The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD-Ghana) and the Ghana Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (Ghana NCD Alliance) collaborated on a project called Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives (HD4HL), which aims to develop evidence and take action towards a comprehensive policy bundle for healthier consumer food environments in Ghana. The ultimate goal is to reduce the burden of malnutrition and promote equity in access to nutritious food. The project is titled "Developing Evidence and Action Towards a Double-duty Food-Based Policy Bundle to Ensure Healthier Diets in Ghana". Ensuring a healthier diet is crucial for maintaining good health and nutrition, as it helps protect against various chronic and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular issues, obesity, and cancer. It involves consuming a diverse range of foods including whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and low-fat dairy products. It also requires limiting the intake of sugars, salts, saturated fats, and naturally occurring trans-fats. By following these dietary guidelines, individuals can lead a healthy life.

It is of huge concerned that about 25% of the global population face challenges in accessing safe, nutritious, and sufficient food, according to the UN's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 report. This issue, is not limited to developing countries such as Ghana, which has also shown limited progress towards achieving the diet-related Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) targets. It estimated that, 19.3% of adult females aged 18 years and over and 5.6% male adults suffer obesity. The Ghana’s obesity prevalence is lower than the regional average of 20.8% in women and 9.2% in men. At the same time, diabetes is also estimated to affect 7.6% of adult women and 7.3% of adult men.

To address these challenges, multiple stakeholders numbering 15 came together for an event that took place, at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIR-STEPRI), on August 30, 2023. Key participants included the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana, the Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy (CAPHA), World Vision International, Planned Parenthood Association Ghana (PPAG), and implementing partners such as Ghana Public Health Association, Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Songtaba, Youth Network for Health Promotion and the Staff of the GhNCDA secretariat. The event aimed to foster collaboration, share knowledge, and work towards effective strategies in promoting healthier diets and improving overall nutritional outcomes in Ghana.

Objectives of the meeting

· To create awareness and enhance education

· To counter arguments on hyping public interest in unhealthy foods

· To achieve a reduction in the rate of malnutrition and NCDs

· To create awareness of unhealthy foods and practices

· To achieve a safe food environment in Ghana.

Presenting the overview of the project, Gideon Amevinya from the University of Ghana School ofPublic Health said the overall objective sought to build evidence and mobilize multi-stakeholder actions toward a policy bundle for healthier and more equitable consumer food environments that reduce the double burden of malnutrition. He rehashed that the project would last for three years with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC-Canada). The implementation partners include the Food and Drugs Authority, CAPHA, the University of Ghana, the Ministry of Health, and the National Development Planning Commission.

He stressed that the Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) aspect of the project, consists of open, transparent systems for classifying food as healthy or unhealthy and informing policy. Policy Bundle leads to an improved food environment which will result in healthier lives as a result of labeling systems; public procurement/food provision, fiscal policy, marketing regulations, food retail policy, food composition, etc. He opined that the importance of this project on human health includes but is not limited to increased consumption of healthy foods, decreased consumption of unhealthy foods, improvement in health and nutrition outcomes, etc.

The Vice Chairman, Mr. Adams Ebenezer for the Ghana Non-Communicable Disease Alliance GhNCDA (SASNET) making a submission.

Questions and Answer session and contribution

· How do the unlettered tell if a food product is healthy or not? In response, Gideon said the policy will include warning labels in the form of color codes to inform consumers that, a product is highly sugary or salty.

· Why are the writings about adverts on food products and their location boldly written, but with the nutrients they contain, it’s written smaller? Gideon answered that manufacturers are mandated to make labeling visible and bold on their products, so as part of this project, the committee is going to look thoroughly at that aspect again.

· Contributing to the discussion, the Vice Chairman for the GhNCDA (SASNET), Mr. Adams Ebenezer indicated that inscriptions on a type of sardine at one of the Melcom branches in Ghana he visited, was in Chinese language...

· Gideon made a clarification as to whether the fiscal policy has an additional tax on the already imposed tax on SSBs saying tt is yet to be discussed at the committee level.

· His response to whether the Nutrient Profiling Model shall apply all food groups, said it is applicable to individual food groups. For instance, if Indomie is found to unhealthy, the Nutrient Profiling Model NPM [LM1] will apply to only Indomie and not all noodles.

· Gideon’s reply to questions on tax affecting only consumers said the tax is not focused on consumers only but on producers as well in terms of reformulating sugar input in beverages. For instance, if sugar of 20ml is deposited in a beverage, the tax will reduce it to either 15ml or 10ml.

The Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy (CAPHA) led by Dr. Samuel Gyamfi

in a presentation said their mandate is to support and translate issues on grounds for the people to be informed.

He said some of the functions they will perform in the Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives project include the following; prompt formulation and implementation of healthy food-related policies, engage in evidence-based advocacy, scholarly activism, and capacity strengthening, and strengthening accountability system.

Statement from implementing partners

Ghana Health Association: James Mckeown Amoah, the National Organizer of the Ghana Public Health Association expressed his organization’s readiness to contribute to the HD4HL project because achieving the objectives of the project, which aligns with the GhPHA’s vision, would ensure a healthier life for Ghanaians. He said the Ghana Health Association is committed to supporting the successful implementation of the project.

Institute of Leadership and Development: Perry Agordoh from the Institute of Leadership and Development expressed the organization's dedication to this project. They will provide high-quality evidence-based research and findings to benefit the targeted population. Perry commended the Ghana NCD Alliance for initiating this stakeholder forum, emphasizing the importance of collaboration to achieve significant success. He expressed confidence in the project's outcome, stating, "We Must Win and Surely Will."

Juliet Akuamoah Boateng, the Policy and Advocacy officer, presented on behalf of the National Coordinator of the Ghana NCD Alliance’s role in the HD4HL project, specifically focusing on the food labeling policy. She highlighted the following as focus areas:

· Protecting the public from counterfeit products: The Ghana NCD Alliance will educate the public about fraudulent imitation of trusted brands and products, raising awareness about the unauthorized use of someone else's trademark.

· Providing comprehensive information about food: Throughout the project, the Ghana NCD Alliance will assist the public in understanding the nutritional content that every food should have before consumption.

· Supporting local food producers: The Ghana NCD Alliance will ensure that labels such as "Made in Ghana" are displayed on food products, attracting consumers' attention and adding value to the product and the producer through its authenticity.

Juliet emphasized that while most pre-packaged foods in Ghana are labeled, there is still room for improvement in Ghana's food labeling practices. She highlighted the need for the government to adopt global best practices to enhance these improvements.

Key takeaways

· There is a need to build consensus on key criteria that impact food safety and public health regardless of where that food is produced, processed, and distributed.

· Consider the use of simple language to educate the public

· Imported foods such as sausages should be paid attention

· Target should include the health sector since they have more evidence of patients suffering from unhealthy food intake.

· Engagement with the media to advance our advocacy must be prioritized.