NDPC Director-General Calls for Stronger Coordination, Financing to Improve Nutrition Outcomes
The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, has called for stronger coordination, sustained financing and greater use of evidence to improve nutrition outcomes and make nutrition a more integral part of Ghana’s development planning.
She said nutrition should no longer be viewed solely as a health-sector concern, but as a national development priority with far-reaching implications for human capital development, education, productivity, resilience and the prospects of future generations.
Dr Amoah made the call at the Micronutrient Forum 2026 in Accra, held under the theme, “Accelerating Nutrition Action Through Multisectoral Collaboration and Sustainable Financing: Lessons from Ghana.”
“Nutrition is not only a health concern. It is a national development priority that shapes human capital, educational attainment, productivity, resilience and the prospects of future generations,” she stated.
Dr Amoah said although Ghana had established policies, institutions and coordination platforms to advance nutrition, the key challenge was to translate those arrangements into coherent implementation, sustained investment and measurable results.
She explained that Ghana’s nutrition approach required the active participation of sectors beyond health, including agriculture, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, social protection, local economic development and public finance.
According to her, the Food Systems and Nutrition Security Cross-Sectoral Planning Group provides an important platform for the various sectors to work around a common agenda and strengthen the integration of nutrition priorities into sectoral and district development plans.
Dr Amoah stressed that multisectoral collaboration must result in concrete changes in planning, budgeting and implementation rather than remain limited to consultations among stakeholders.
“Multisectoral collaboration must be more than periodic consultation. It must influence how priorities are set, how programmes are designed, how resources are allocated and how performance is assessed,” she said.
She identified three priority areas for strengthening Ghana’s nutrition response: improving coordination within existing national and decentralised planning systems; strengthening nutrition financing, expenditure tracking and accountability across sectors; and using evidence to scale up interventions capable of delivering equitable and sustainable nutrition outcomes.
Dr Amoah said the forum had reinforced the importance of functional governance, sustained financing, coordinated implementation and accountability across sectors and levels of government.
The UNICEF Ghana Representative, Mr Andy Brooks, stated the need to translate Ghana’s commitment to nutrition into sustained and adequate investment at scale.
He said nutrition budget tracking could help identify where resources were concentrated, where financing gaps existed and how domestic and partner resources could be better aligned with national priorities.
Mr Brooks further emphasised the need to link nutrition financing to planning, budgeting and accountability processes to ensure that investments produced measurable results.
Freda Marfo, ISD
