Bolgatanga, June 20, GNA – The emergence of Corona Virus or COVID-19, which has taken a toll on nations, gives all food for thought that doing things in multidimensional manner builds a better and secured future for regions and nations globally.
The Pandemic is not only related to Ghana, and therefore the dimension and dire implications is expected to come, if lots of efforts and strategies are not taken to protect livelihoods now and the future and for that matter, the numerous calls for positive actions is case for a more comprehensive deal to protect children, women and men who are hardest hit.
It is incumbent on all to ensure that children are protected, safe and especially getting right proportions of food and macro nutrients for their growth.
To that extent all nutrition and food policies need collaborative response and should not only be discussed in emergencies as what is at hand with its impact on the economy.
Reports indicate that Additional borrowing and related expenses that will be incurred is likely to increase the country’s debt risk.
The unplanned increase in expenditure, particularly in the health sector could adversely impact the fiscal deficit.
Government estimates that events unfolding as a result of COVID-19 even with some mitigating measures will result in a deficit of 6.6 per cent of revised GDP, which is higher than the de facto fiscal rule of 5 per cent established by the Fiscal Responsibility Law. (overview and implications of covid 19 on the economy, Deloitte views on fiscal measures, April 2020)
The growing uncertainties
Despite the efforts and steps taken by government to protect Ghanaians from spread of Covid-19, there are still some predictions that indicate that people must live with the pandemic even if after a hopeful 6 months no changes come.
Some growing uncertainties about preparations by families, districts, regions and the nation as a whole in the post COVID era and next line of strategies are really not captured on what plans are available for families with their children and uncertainties in terms of getting adequate quantities of food supplies.
Before the outbreak of Corona Virus, more than 80 per cent of the world’s poor people were food insecure people, living in rural areas and according to the reports, more than 820 million people were going hungry daily which Covid 19 situation could further push people into poverty and hunger, where poverty is known to be a major cause of malnutrition.
Whereas Ghana among other African countries over the years have struggled through food and nutrition policies because harvests were failing, the result of which the African New Partnership for Africa’s Development among others were implemented for countries to strategize to commit 10 per cent of their national budgets per year to build some four pillars namely ; sustainable land management, water ,rural infrastructure ,market access and greater food supply to reduce hunger.
These attempts by party countries were short-lived because of failure of most of the countries to meet the 10 per cent budget allocation.
However, 2018 global report on nutrition indicate the slow process of countries’ inability to achieve targets set and this makes malnutrition to remain high across nations.
The report further attests that despite reductions in stunting, 50.5 million children under five years are wasted and 20 million newborn babies are estimated to be of low birth weight , while 38.3 million children under 5 are over- weight.
Mr Mugmin Musah, Head of Programme, GRAMEEN Ghana in an interview with this this writer indicated that though Ghana in the recent 2020 Global Nutrition report identify the country as doing well in reducing stunting and wasting, it was retrogressing in some of the indicators of the nutrition policy and according to him, 49 per cent of women are not doing exclusive breastfeeding while cases of obesity continue to rise.
Mr Musah said increasing efforts in exclusive breast feeding, was sure way of boosting the immune system of children which also have the ability to fight Covid 19. “Where children are not able get enough breast milk, their chances of developing acute malnutrition is high”. He said.
THE LOCKDOWN AND FOOD SECURITY FOR FAMILIES IN PANDEMIC
Like any other country the Covid-19 pandemic saw all the measures such as tightening of Ghana’s frontiers leading to panic buying of food and special needs and inflation of prices by vendors each day with financial impact on families with meager incomes.
Food crisis in the locked down cities and selected regions in the country during the pandemic and its implications on districts and regions cannot be over emphasized; unstable food prices, lack of adequate finance, had dire consequences because hunger and malnutrition is high when there is poor diet which can eventually lead to poor health.
Under the supply side the lock down impacted negatively on children and pregnant women especially in getting right food needs in the communities under the lock down situation, while service delivery was seriously impacted stemming from health delivery and nutrition services.
Mr Musah noted that from the lock down to relaxation of the restrictions service delivery at the CHPS and health centers were relaxed because nutrition officers and health staff stayed back because of fear of contracting the virus.
However though in the relaxation of the restrictions, health centers started work people with malnourished children going for services were not observing the protocols, which also could have a ripple effect on families with malnourished children.
Covid 19 situation and any other similar one can deny children the development of their mental faculties and the severity of Covid 19 now, and in future can be detrimental to children and infants and will provide multiple burden on health institutions because of food and health care delivery services.
Nutrition is very critical and the country’s ability to fight the virus in more prolonged periods under restrictions can constantly cause decline of people’s living standards, and lead to high level malnutrition in children under five years.
Nutrition services in rural communities declined whilst supplementary feeding items became scare, under the restrictions.
Whilst these items were in short supply and could not be found on daily basis to purchase had the potential of deepening acute malnutrition cases and for malnourished children undergoing treatment.
whilst countries try hard to fight COVID 19, Goal 2 of the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) which focuses on food and nutrition security and agriculture with specified targets on reducing stunting and wasting among children.
This double barreled and daunting task cannot be overemphasized for countries in the pandemic era.
Role of organisations
Organizations such as SNV in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Voice for Change (V4C) Partnership programme aims at strengthening capacities of CSOs to advocate a conducive and enabling environment for increased budgetary allocations and expenditure, increased private sector investment, improved coordination and effective implementation of nutrition policies in Ghana. This call cannot come at better than now.
The effort is backed by SNV effort in pushing for sustainable nutrition with focus on food and nutrition security , on Sustainable nutrition for all (SN4A) especially in terms of gender and nutrition sensitive value chains, post- harvest losses and food safety.
Speaking with a nutrition policy analyst in a phone interview, Mr Emmanuel Wullingdool, said the Covid 19 has taught the world a lot of lessons.
Any Lessons?
He noted that Social distancing, ensuring hygiene and wearing of nose marks are novel things for the country and at the same time the pandemic has affected markets and prices of goods and services to the extent that food supplies that usually come from neighboring countries to supplement has reduced causing some shortfalls in food supplies.
“Health services that rendered Vitamin A supplementation, and nutritional services for clients are impacted negatively because people are scared to attend some childcare services” he said among others.
The School feeding programme that served as source of nutrition and hot meals for children in rural areas have been affected due to the emergence of COVID-19, and due to the closure of schools, more children are impacted negatively since some families in communities are unable to provide three square meals for their children.
EXPECTED IMPACT OF COVID ON FOOD PRODUCTION
The three regions of the north are in their lean season and most farmers may have exhausted any food in storage and to an extent, the seasonality in food production could be affected because of COVID-19 hence impacting feeding of families.
Though social distancing may not apply on farms it could affect input supply to farmers, labour services and tractor services since those who will supply these services do not come from the districts alone and because there are non- existence of factories in most districts, some of the services are imported, hence could affect food production.
Mr. Mugmin Musah indicated that farmers’ tendency to get enough food supply this year is high as most could not go into farming early due to lack of finances.
Meanwhile under COVID- 19 situation it made it more difficult for farmers to raise needed finances hence the inability of most of them to venture into production this year and according to him, this is likely to impact on production.
To this end the call for expedited mechanization services to support farmers to fast track their activities and need to send input subsidy supplies to central points of remote communities for farmers to access.
WAY FORWARD IN POST COVID ERA
While searching for solution to address Covid-19, sight should not be lost of promoting good nutritional values in families and communities. Therefore a re-look at agriculture as key area that can boost and make the country resilient to shocks in emergency situations.
It is clear that Post COVID-19 situation does not guarantee anything rosy for communities and that also call for more resilience in food sustenance and ensuring good nutrition status for all.
The need for direct intervention for malnourished children in terms of supply of supplementary food and for that matter government need to engage the private sector to produce supplementary feeding materials such as local plumpy nuts and vitamin A to be distributed to health and CHPS in remote communities.
This will be in fulfillment of the National Nutrition Policy that shuns on over reliance on donor funds and also enhance government’s effort in taking over nutrition service delivery as well as whipping up private sector development and improving nutrition for all.
There is need for systems to be put in place for emergency alerts and responses in communities during food crises situation with more swift supplies of food.
Collaboration between government and the private sector need to improve service provision by creating enabling environment for people to have sustainable access to sufficient, affordable and nutritious food with the bid to promoting food security measures in communities, based on the sustainable nutrition for all agenda.
Community enhanced food storage systems is also key and that will go a long way to improve the buffer stock programme of government.
According to the Nutrition Policy analyst, Mr Wullingdool, food bans served as a deliberate storage facility in communities and food in them targets the vulnerable in times of food shortages.
He said time was also ripe for a proper database of people that were really in need in Ghana, capturing how many , where and where such people live.
Also promote staple crop and food in districts and put in place a geographical incentive policy such as agricultural insurance for farmers in the various districts to protect them from external and internal shocks and to serve as encouragement for farmers to do more to improve productivity.
Home grown food such as Bambara beans, yam, can be customized and more utilization of indigenous food should be stepped up in the government PFJs interventions as well as make efforts to cut down import of foods.
Above all, nutrition is not just a health issue for which nutrition officers must remain at the health centers.
Therefore there is need for continuous education in communities about eating nutritious, and balanced diets, setting up community stakeholder groups on nutrition and dieticians who can easily be accessible in the communities to sensitize and teach people how promote nutritious meals.
GNA