The World Food Program (WFP) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday aimed at supporting the efforts of the West African country to address food security and nutrition challenges.
The MOU is to enable the WFP and the GSS to generate empirical data with which to design solutions to the country’s food security and nutrition challenges.
In the first year of implementation, the partners would conduct the third national comprehensive food security and vulnerability assessment (CFSVA) and roll out the mobile vulnerability analysis and mapping (mVAM) in Ghana.
The CFSVA aims to provide up-to-date information on food security at the household level to identify the most vulnerable areas of the population, while the mVAM would leverage mobile technology to remotely monitor household food security, nutrition, and food market-related trends in real time.
WFP Country Director for Ghana, Barbara Clemens, said during the signing ceremony that the collaboration with the GSS is important to have a factual basis to propose solutions to Ghana’s food security challenges.
“Ensuring food security and improving nutrition in Ghana is not just a commitment, but a necessity for sustainable development,” Clemens stated.
She added that “the generation of robust evidence is vital in guiding our interventions, shaping policies that make a tangible difference, and optimizing our impact, especially at a time when resources are increasingly shrinking.”
The WFP official added that cooperation with GSS would be pivotal in providing insights for a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities in food security and nutrition across Ghana.
“Together, we can build a stronger foundation for a healthier, more resilient Ghana,” she added.
Samuel Annim, the government statistician at the GSS, underscored the importance of combining different statistical measures to understand food security, nutrition, and food sufficiency in the country.