Nutrition
Eba and Egusi Stew
Ingredients
Egusi soup:
- 2 cups ground egusi (melon seeds)
- 1 kg assorted meat (beef, goat)
- Stockfish (pre-soaked/boiled) and smoked fish
- ½ to ¾ cup palm oil
- 5 cups spinach or bitter leaf
- 1 large onion
- 2–3 seasoning cubes
- Scotch bonnet pepper (to taste)
- 1–2 tablespoons ground crayfish
Eba:
- Gari (white or yellow/red oil-fortified)
- Boiling water
Preparation
For Egusi Soup:
- Boil the assorted meat with chopped onions, seasoning cubes, and salt until tender. Reserve the meat stock.
- Heat palm oil in a clean pot on medium heat. Add finely chopped onions and sauté.
- Add the ground egusi and fry for 8–10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until it turns slightly toasted and crumbly.
- Gradually add the reserved meat stock to the fried egusi while stirring to avoid lumps.
- Cover the pot and let egusi simmer for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the oil separates and rises to the top.
- Add ground crayfish, pepper, and the cooked meat/fish. Stir and cook for another 5–10 minutes.
- Add the washed/chopped vegetables (spinach or bitter leaf) and simmer for 2–5 minutes until wilted but still green.
For Eba:
- Boil water in a kettle or pot until it reaches a rolling boil.
- Pour hot water into a bowl. Gradually sprinkle the gari into the hot water.
- Stir vigorously with a wooden spatula to prevent lumps until the gari is fully incorporated and smooth.
- Cover the bowl for 1–2 minutes to allow the heat to steam the eba.
- By Theresa Tsetse
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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
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