Market-based reduction in stunting and anemia by local nutrient-dense diets

1. Through partnership with the Ghana Health Service, strengthen the foundation of a sustainable model of market-based nutrition improvement in low and middle-income contexts, using public-private-partnership-supported training-of-trainers (TOT) and subsequent peer-to-peer training on exclusive breastfeeding and optimal infant and young child nutrition (IYCN) for at least 20,000 health workers (estimated minimum 4000 per year), social behaviour change on IYCN reaching 725,000 caregivers (145,000 per year) through food demonstration and distribution of a protein-micronutrient powder, to contribute to reducing stunting in children under 5 from 17% (2022 data) to 11% by 2030. These goals align with the nutrition improvement commitments of Ghana.

2. Increase coverage of the market-based Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project (GNIP) from 156 districts (60% of national coverage as at 2024) to 210 districts (80% of national coverage), to reach 1.5 million children with protein and micronutrients powder in Ghana by 2030.

3. Extend child beneficiary bracket from 6 – 24 months to 6 months-10 years by 2028 to improve nutrient density and contribute to addressing iron deficiency anaemia, which receives disproportionately low domestic and donor interventions, despite a 49% anaemia prevalence among children under 5.

4. Establishment of a consortium for multisectoral actions for sustainable nutrition improvement by leveraging on the unique inputs of nutrient density improvement of domestic foods for infants and young children using protein and micronutrients powder and dietary diversity education, rapid and reliable diagnostics of micronutrient deficiency, and digitization of health data recording and corresponding nutritional counselling protocols.

5. Pursue multisectoral linkages for climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive primary production of commodities in support of sustainable food systems, with a pilot collaborative project implemented by 2028.

6. Pursue integration of market-based nutrition improvement in school feeding programmes in alignment with the Nutrition Friendly Schools Initiative (NFSI) of the Ghana Health Service, the Nutrition Friendly Communities Initiative (NFCI) of the Ghana Health Service, and implementation of the National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines by 2030.

7. Through public-private partnership with the Ghana Health Service, pursue coverage of minimum dietary diversity for infants and young children aged 6-23 months (MDD-IYC) to 60% (from 28.1% in 2014) in Ghana and contribute to wasting reduction to 3% (from 6.2% in 2014) by 2030.