The Minister for Health Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has pledged the government’s commitment to improving the Ghanaian food environment by implementing among others, food-based dietary guidelines to facilitate the implementation of a set of food-based policies for Ghana.
Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu made this call during the ‘Healthier Diets 4 Healthy Lives Project (HD4HL)’ project launch co- implemented by the Coalition of Government agencies and Civil Society at the Mensvic Grand Hotel, Accra on Wednesday, March 9, 2022.
“The launch of this project clearly testiIes that the government is serious in creating supportive food environments that ensures healthy diets. We are committed as leaders of health institutions to improve the health and nutrition of the population and we will not stop or allow mediocrity in making decisions aimed at improving food environments for people regardless of their locality, race, gender and socio-economic status.
It is my hope and expectation that this project brings new ray of hope, where, populations will be empowered to make healthier choices and reduce levels of overweight, obesity and non- communicable diseases, the minister stated.”
Hon Agyemam-Manu in his keynote address noted that the project will help Ghanaians make healthier choices and get access to quality health service delivery.
Mr. Chairman, I have described this project as very important and for very good reasons too. This project which we are privileged to be undertaking as a country is for the purpose of building evidence and mobilizing multi- stakeholder actions toward a policy bundle for healthier and more equitable consumer food environments that reduce the double burden of malnutrition in Ghana.
In an exclusive interview with UniversNews, the Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ministry of Health, Ghana, Dr. Emmanuel Ankarah’s Odame said the ministry will engage with the relevant stakeholders in the implementation process to ensure that Ghanaians get access to a healthier diet.
“We say we are what we eat, and this program is basically about how do we deIne what Ghanaians eat in such a way that 20 to 30 years from now, we can have Ghanaians who are healthy. So what we aim to do with this project is basically to look at how do we promote healthy diet and labelling our food products.
So the aim of this project is to work with the relevant stakeholders; ministry of health, being the main ministry, the food, and drugs authority, the ghana health service, and the national development planning commission to look at how we deIne a food-based policy bundle that will enable the Ghanaian to be healthy and achieve the saying that you are what you eat, he said at the launch.” he said.
Source: Radio Univers
