Nutrition
Poloo/Coconut Biscuits
Poloo
Ingredients
2 Cupsof all-purpose flour
2 Cups of coconut flakes
1 Cup of coconut milk
½ Tablespoonful of salt
1 Cup of sugar
2 Cups of sunflower/vegetable oil (for frying)
Preparation
In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients (flour, coconut flakes, coconut milk, salt and sugar). Mix until everything is well combined into a soft dough.
Transfer onto a well-floured surface and gently knead for two to three minutes. If it is too sticky during the kneading process, just use more flour.
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough flat. Use a knife or a dough cutter and cut the flattened dough into long strips. Then cut each strip into small diagonal shapes.
On medium heat, heat the oil and fry the coconut cookies until they are golden-brown incolour. This should take about five to eight minutes.
Tip: When frying these, fry them in small batches. Adding too much at a time will drop the temperature of the oil, which will seep inside the cookies.
Take them out and rest them on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
Source: Food.com
Benefits of coconut
-Promotes blood sugar control
-Contains powerful antioxidants
-Easy to add to your diet
-Coconut is high in fibre and controls diabetes
-Coconut helps with digestion
-Coconut provides healthy skin
The persistence of malnutrition in Ghana raises important questions about leadership and accountability in nutrition governance. While technical expertise and donor support are available, progress remains uneven due to weak accountability mechanisms and limited political prioritisation.
Effective leadership for nutrition requires more than policy statements. It demands clear targets, sustained financing, and transparent monitoring systems.
Nutrition outcomes must be tracked and publicly reported, allowing citizens to assess government performance.
Accountability must extend across all levels of government. National leadership sets the tone, but district and regional authorities are responsible for implementation.
Strengthening leadership capacity at these levels is essential to ensure that national commitments translate into tangible results.
The media and civil society play a critical role in sustaining advocacy and demanding accountability.
By keeping nutrition on the public agenda, they help ensure that commitments are not forgotten once policy documents are launched.
Ghana’s development ambitions, including middle-income growth and human capital development, cannot be achieved while malnutrition persists.
Nutrition outcomes should be treated as indicators of governance effectiveness, alongside economic growth and infrastructure delivery.
Leadership that prioritises nutrition sends a powerful signal about national values and priorities. It demonstrates a commitment to equity, child survival, and long-term prosperity.
The fight against malnutrition is ultimately a test of leadership. Ghana has the knowledge, resources, and capacity to succeed. What is needed now is the political will to act decisively and hold institutions accountable for results.
Key policy recommendations: The Ghana Statistical Service should establish a National Nutrition Dashboard, publishing real-time data on stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies by district and region, updated quarterly and accessible to the public.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must conduct annual nutrition expenditure reviews, tracking budget allocations versus actual spending across all MDAs.
The Office of the President should institute an Annual National Nutrition Summit where Ministers and DCEs present progress reports, with independent evaluation by civil society organizations.
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) should launch a “Nutrition Accountability Campaign” educating citizens on nutrition as a governance issue and how to demand action from elected officials. Media houses should be supported to develop specialized nutrition reporting units that investigate and expose gaps in service delivery.
Finally, the Auditor-General’s office should include nutrition programme audits in its annual work plan, examining value-for-money and impact of nutrition investments with findings presented to Parliament.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
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Ingredients
– 2 large onions (chopped)
– 4 eggs
-3 tomatoes
– 1 green pepper
– 2 carrots
– Salt to taste
Method
– Wash all vegetables (Onion, tomatoes, green pepper, carrots) and cut into cubes
– Crack all eggs into a bowl
– Lightly whisk the eggs and add a pinch of salt together until all the ingredients are mixed
-Add vegetables and whisk
– Heat oil on fire and pour the egg mixture and let it sit, without stirring, for 20 seconds.
– Stir with a spatula, lifting and folding it over from the bottom of the pan. Let it sit for another 10 seconds then stir and fold again.
– Turn off the heat and leave for a few seconds to finish frying
-Give a final stir and serve the scramble egg
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