Nutrition
Hungry pupils, weak Policies: Why education reform must start with nutrition
In every district across Ghana, children sit in classrooms with their books open but their minds closed off by hunger. Teachers try their best, parents make sacrifices, and government rolls out curriculum reforms.
Yet the invisible barrier remains: an empty plate. Nutrition is the silent factor sabotaging Ghana’s education system, and until policymakers treat it as such, the promise of quality education will remain unfulfilled.
Picture a classroom in rural Ghana. A young boy sits at his desk, his head resting on his arms. His teacher calls on him to read, but his voice is faint and his words stumble. He has not had a proper breakfast. At home, the family eats mostly starchy staples, with little protein or micronutrients. His body is present in school, but his mind is absent.
The missing piece in education policy
Education reforms often focus on infrastructure, teacher training, or examination standards. But without nutrition, these investments deliver half their potential. A child who is stunted in the first five years of life enters school already disadvantaged, their brain underdeveloped, their ability to concentrate impaired. For adolescent girls, anemia robs them of energy, increasing absenteeism and weakening their future prospects.
This is not just a health issue. It is a policy failure when education strategy ignores nutrition. Policymakers must recognise that learning outcomes are directly tied to what children eat before and during school hours.
School Feeding: A missed opportunity
The Ghana School Feeding Programme was designed to bridge this gap, and it has succeeded in drawing children into classrooms. But too often the meals are monotonous, nutrient-deficient, and unbalanced, providing calories without nourishment. A plate of plain rice may temporarily silence hunger pangs, but it cannot build sharp minds or strong bodies.
Here lies the policy challenge: the programme must shift from feeding for numbers to feeding for nutrition. That requires clear standards, consistent funding, and strong monitoring to ensure that meals truly meet the needs of growing children.
What leaders must do
If Ghana wants to close its education gaps, nutrition must be integrated into the core of education planning. This means:
Making nutrition a key performance indicator in the Ministry of Education’s agenda.
Revising school feeding contracts to demand balanced meals with proteins, vegetables, and micronutrients.
Aligning agriculture policy with school meals, so local farmers supply diverse, nutritious foods.
Ensuring that adolescent girls receive iron supplementation through schools to combat anemia.
A call to stakeholders
Parliament must treat school nutrition with the same urgency as curriculum reforms. District assemblies must prioritise nutritious meal provision in their education budgets. Development partners and CSOs must hold government accountable for not just how many children are fed, but how well they are nourished.
Because the truth is simple: Ghana cannot build a skilled workforce, a competitive economy, or a prosperous future on the foundation of hungry, undernourished children.
The future of our education system does not begin with textbooks or blackboards. It begins with a plate of food, and the policies that ensure it is nourishing.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition Project in collaboration with Eleanor Crook Foundation
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Ghana has nutrition policies. Ghana has nutrition targets. Ghana has nutrition programmes spread across multiple ministries and dozens of implementing partners.
What Ghana does not have is a single, empowered body responsible for leading, coordinating, and holding all this together. That is the gap a National Nutrition Council would fill, and stakeholders are calling for one now.
The case for a council
At a stakeholder engagement convened under the Nourish Ghana project in 2025, participants proposed the establishment of a National Nutrition Council to provide effective leadership and a governance framework for addressing malnutrition in Ghana. The meeting, which brought together policymakers, development partners, civil society organisations, and the media, highlighted a fundamental problem: nutrition responsibilities are fragmented across various ministries. Without a dedicated coordination body, efforts are duplicated, accountability is diffuse, and nutrition consistently loses out when budgets are tight.
The proposal echoes a model used in several countries that have made the fastest progress against malnutrition. Nigeria’s National Council on Nutrition, for example, recently pledged $107 million at the 2025 N4G Summit, a level of coordinated ambition that Ghana has struggled to match.
Ghana does have existing coordination structures worth acknowledging. The Scaling Up Nutrition Cross-Sectoral Planning Group (CSPG), established in 2012, was set up to harmonise planning, implementation, and monitoring of nutrition actions across sectors. It has produced real gains. But the challenge has been institutionalising those gains beyond project cycles, and analysts have called for an elevated national coordination body with presidential oversight to ensure genuine cross-sector accountability. A National Nutrition Council would go further, providing the dedicated financing and convening authority that the CSPG, as currently structured, does not have.
What a Council would do
A National Nutrition Council would provide political oversight and coordination across all sectors involved in nutrition, health, agriculture, education, social protection, and finance. It would track Ghana’s nutrition commitments, hold ministries accountable for delivery, and ensure that nutrition budgets are protected and spent effectively. Most importantly, it would give nutrition a permanent seat at the table where national development decisions are made.
The Time Is Now
Ghana made 10 commitments at the 2025 N4G Paris Summit. Translating those commitments into results requires a governance structure that does not currently exist. Establishing a National Nutrition Council is not a bureaucratic exercise. It is the institutional foundation without which Ghana’s nutrition ambitions will remain promises on paper. Leaders must act on this proposal without delay.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
-350grammes of plain flour
-2 tablespoonfuls of baking powder
-2 tablespoonfuls of grinded ginger
-1 tablespoonful of grinded cinnamon
-1/2 tablespoonful of grinded cloves (optional)
-1/2 tablespoonful of nutmeg
-Salt
– 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
-1 cup of dark brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1/2 cup of golden syrup
-1 tablespoonful of vanilla extract
-Sprinkles, edible glitter, or small sweets
Preparation
-Begin by preheating the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lining a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
-In a large bowl, sift together the plain flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Stir well and set aside.
-In another bowl, use an electric whisk or a wooden spoon to cream the softened butter and dark brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. (This step helps incorporate air into the dough, giving your gingerbread a lovely texture).
-Beat eggs into the butter and sugar mixture, then mix in the golden syrup and vanilla extract. (Stir until the mixture is fully combined).
-Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring gently until a dough forms. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
-Wrap the dough in cling film and chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Chilling the dough makes it easier to roll and ensures that the shapes hold their form during baking.
-On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 5mm (1/4 inch). Place the cut-out shapes on the prepared baking tray, leaving a little space between each one.
-Bake the gingerbread in the preheated oven for 10–12 minutes, or until the edges begin to darken slightly. Keep a close eye on them to avoid over-baking.
– Get creative with sprinkles, edible glitter, or small sweets to make your gingerbread truly unique.
