Ghana’s Food and Agriculture Ministry Chief: USAID’s Policy LINK Will Help Improve Food and Nutrition Outcomes

The Policy LINK Ghana Activity held inception meetings for stakeholders from Accra , Tamale, Wa, and Bolgatanga.

The Feed the Future (FTF) Ghana Policy LINK Activity has wrapped up a series of three “inception meetings” that introduced the activity’s goals to representatives of government, civil society organizations (CSOs), the private sector, research institutions and academia, USAID FTF Implementing Partners (IPs), and other development partners. The meetings, which attracted 224 participants—more than a quarter of them women—took place in the capital Accra on August 16 as well as in the northern regions of Tamale on August 23 and Wa and Bolgatanga (Upper East and North East regions) on August 25. The attendees hailed from all 17 districts where the Policy LINK activity will be working. 

More than a quarter of the 224 participants were women.

Speaking at the Accra event, Mr. Robert Patrick Ankobiah, Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), and Ms. Amber Lilly Kenny, Acting Director of the USAID/Ghana Economic Growth Office, affirmed their commitment to supporting the Policy LINK activity’s mandate, which includes strengthening the capacity of Ghanaian stakeholders to participate in a more transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based agriculture and food security policy process—one that leads to improved food and nutrition outcomes and broad-based economic growth.

Mr. Yunus Abdulai, Country Lead for the Policy LINK activity, stressed that the government of Ghana had already set in motion various approaches to strengthening the policy process in the country. Policy LINK’s role, he added, is to build on these approaches, further encouraging a shift in mindset, attitudes, and behaviors among policy stakeholders.

“Policies are formulated to guide in decision-making and, most importantly, to guarantee the uniformity of those decisions,” said Mr. Abdulai. “By including a broad range of stakeholders, ensuring that deliberations are transparent, and basing approaches on evidence, governments and the donors that support them can contribute to the effective and efficient development—and implementation—of policies.”  

The events for Tamale, Wa, and Bolgatanga were attended by the Chief Directors of the Regional Coordinating Councils for the Northern, Upper West, and Upper East regions (where the Upper East and North East stakeholders met). These key sub-national officials expressed their support for the Policy LINK activity’s work and further underscored their commitment to furthering the activity’s ends. 

“By including a broad range of stakeholders, ensuring that deliberations are transparent, and basing approaches on evidence, governments and the donors that support them can contribute to the effective and efficient development—and implementation—of policies.”

The government of Ghana views improving the agriculture sector, which is characterized by low production and productivity, as a means to increase employment, address income and social inequalities, reduce poverty, improve food security, and contribute to improved nutrition. The government is working to consolidate its social and economic advancements, in part by transforming the agriculture and food security system—a focus of the country’s “Ghana Beyond Aid” strategy and a key anchor of broad-based economic growth.  

To support these efforts, the five-year FTF Ghana Policy LINK Activity works toward inclusive, multi-stakeholder, evidence-backed, and more sustainable policy outcomes by:

• Strengthening collaborative governance systems that drive better and more sustainable outcomes.

• Building capacity for strong and inclusive policy systems.

• Bolstering systems for evidence-informed policymaking.

Building on the feedback it received from the three inception meetings, Policy LINK will carry out further consultations with stakeholders to prioritize areas of support and collaboration. Meanwhile, the activity is also engaging with stakeholders in Accra and Tamale to begin developing a set of climate-resilient “pathways” aimed at mitigating the impact of increasingly erratic rainfall, temperatures, and sea levels.

 To learn more about Policy LINK’s work in Ghana, please visit policylinkglobal.org/ghana.