A one- day sensitization workshop on Food Systems entitled “Beyond the Dialogue” has ended in Accra.
The 3-year project, organized by coordinators of “Beyond the Dialogue Project” was funded by the Canadian government.
It was on the theme “tracking Ghana’s commitment to transform its Food Systems”.
Under the project, the University of Ghana partnered collaborating institutions such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ghana Statistical Service and Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy (CAPHA).
A general objective of the project was to implement a science-based tracking of Ghana’s commitments to transform its food systems and conduct a cost- benefit analysis to assess the economic efficiency, viability and societal impact of the commitments.
It was also organized to sensitize food systems stakeholders particularly the media fraternity who have not been meaningfully engaged to promote their sensitization and advocacy roles.
In a remark from collaborating institutions on the role of civil society organizations in food systems transformation, Director of Operations of CAPHA, Dr Kasim Abdulai said the “Beyond the Dialogue” Project is not just about tracking progress but about creating model of transparency and accountability that can inspire the entire continent.
“We are here to champion the cause for accountability ensuring that these 17 commitments are not mere promises but are acted upon”, he said.
He said if government’s role is to commit and academia’s role is to measure, then the role of civil society is to be the conscience of the process.
“Our role is to ensure these commitments move from paperwork to practice, and from promises to tangible impact”, he said.
On why Ghana needs to integrate food systems transformation into Ghana’s national development agenda, a principal planning analyst of NDPC, Nii Odoi Odotei in a speech read on his behalf said food systems transformation is not only about agriculture but about how we produce, distribute, process, market and store our foods.
He said NDPC has consistently over the years integrated food systems into the national development framework which would be sustained to create a positive impact on our food systems.
He mentioned that over the past years NDPC has ensured maximum integration of food systems into sectors and mid- terms development plans.
“NDPC next priority is to ensure that integrated food systems are prioritized and at the core of national development agenda”, he said.
Odotei said NDPC wishes to work with all stakeholders while ensuring that the benefit reaches all communities across the country.
Briefing the media following a presentation on “Beyond the Dialogue Project, a Project Principal and Head of Department, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Professor Amos Laar( PhD) said as part of the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), countries participated in several dialogues, engaged food systems stakeholders and developed food systems transformation pathways.
This actions, he explained, resulted in a series of commitments that countries were supposed to implement to transform their food systems.
He said these pledges were made in September and December of 2021 and between 2021 and 2030, the commitments need to be achieved while some needed to be achieved by 2022 to 2025.
“For some of the commitments, evidence exist they have been achieved but for others, the data being collected would determine whether they have been achieved or not”, he said.
He commended the government of Ghana to have made this bold commitment to transform our food systems, adding that food systems were crucial to our survival and existence.
He further said the indicators being used to track the commitments were in line with the Sustainable Development Goal indicators.
On a presentation on an overview of Ghana’s United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) Commitments, a Co- Principal Investigator of the University of Ghana, Prof Anna Lartey mentioned that over 160 United Nations Member States and representatives of regional blocks delivered statements and commitments to transform their food systems at the 2021 UNFSS.
This, she said, was in response to global concerns about malnutrition, food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation.
According to her, through this initiative, Ghana developed a set of 17 commitments spanning five focus areas, representing its pledge to transform its food systems.
Professor Lartey said the project, “Beyond The Dialogue”, seeks to develop indicators on these commitments that were made to track and measure its successful implementation.
She outlined two of the commitments Ghana made at the summit which included developing and implementing food- based dietary guidelines which defines what we should eat to remain healthy.
Furthermore, she mentioned the commitment of increasing maternity leave to 14 weeks to be implemented across all sectors of the economy to encourage women to breastfeed their babies to derive nutritional value.
She urged members of the public to take charge of their health and make the right decisions on what to eat.
In simple terms, she defined a healthy diet as one with a diversity of fruits and vegetables, adding that about half of what we eat at a sitting should be vegetables as a general rule that fits into WHO recommendation.
She disclosed that, official statistics indicated that about 65 percent of Ghanaians could not afford a healthy diet, adding that to a large extent, what we are eating is not what we want but what we can afford.
Prof Lartey said our food was now a topical issue because it has become a source of ill- health for a variety of reasons, including not producing and consuming the right foods.
She stated the fact that majority of the foods we eat are highly processed foods which might not augur well for our health when consumed much too often.
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