WFP Ghana Country Brief, May 2019

In Numbers

45,000 beneficiaries targeted for nutrition support in 2019.

22,020 smallholder farmers targeted for capacity strengthening and market linkages in 2019.

US$ 0.1m six months (June-November) net funding requirements.

13,939 people assisted in May 2019

Operational Updates

• Northern, North East and Savanna Regions The third cycle of distribution for the pregnant and lactating women (PLW) under the country strategic plan (CSP) will end on 22 June. The social behaviour change communication (SBCC) activities led by Ghana Health Service (GHS) continued in all the 50 health facilities, where nutrition and health education, and targeted counselling were given to the beneficiaries on general health and nutrition practices and the benefits.

• The dissemination of the Food Security Assessment of HIV/AIDS affected households in selected regions (Northern, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Central) was done in Ghana. Under the coordination of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and sponsored by WFP, stakeholders from government, civil society organisations and the private sector dialogued on the implications of the assessment findings and the next steps in support. Some of the findings and recommendations are as follows:

• Food insecurity is a problem for thousands of the HIV – affected households in the four focus regions: the “worse off” (8.9 percent) and the “vulnerable” (41.9 percent) need to be prioritized for government support.

• The people living with HIV (PLHIV) adopt negative coping strategies such as reduced portion size of meals; reduced number of meals eaten per a day; relying on less expensive or preferred foods and sometimes harvesting immature crops.

• The GAC indicated that, they will address these negative coping strategies through appropriate national safety net programmes. The GAC, Ghana Health Service, WFP and other partners will institutionalize and incorporate routine food insecurity and vulnerability profiling of PLHIV households at facility level to obtain timely data that will inform policy and programmatic decisions, in addition to the periodic food security assessments.