Nutrition
Understanding RUTF: Ghana’s lifeline for malnourished children
EVERY year, thousands of children across Ghana face the harsh realities of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), a condition that weakens their immunity, disrupts growth, affects brain development, and puts their lives at risk. While families often strive to provide the best they can, the rising cost of food, inadequate dietary diversity, and limited access to nutrition services have made malnutrition an increasingly complex challenge. Amid this struggle, one intervention has stood out as a game changer: Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
RUTF is a specially formulated, nutrient-packed therapeutic paste used to treat children suffering from severe malnutrition. Typically made from peanuts, milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, and a precise blend of vitamins and minerals, RUTF provides every nutrient a severely malnourished child needs to recover rapidly.
What makes RUTF extraordinary is not just its nutritional composition, but its practicality. It requires no cooking, no mixing with water, and no refrigeration, all of which make it ideal for families in communities where clean water, electricity, and food storage are major challenges.
Health professionals consider RUTF one of the most effective treatment tools in global child health. In Ghana, its use within the Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme has allowed caregivers to administer treatment at home while receiving periodic monitoring from health workers. This approach dramatically reduces hospital congestion, cuts costs for families who would otherwise travel long distances for care, and allows children to heal in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
In addition, RUTF supports early recovery by improving appetite, restoring energy, and ensuring steady weight gain, which is critical factors for long-term healthy development. Understanding what RUTF is and why it matters is essential as Ghana continues to confront rising cases of childhood malnutrition linked to economic hardships, climate shocks, and gaps in nutrition governance. RUTF is more than food; it is a lifeline. It is a second chance for children whose futures are threatened not by disease or injury, but by the simple lack of nutritious meals.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project.
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In March 2025, world leaders gathered in Paris for the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, the most important global gathering on malnutrition of the decade. Over $30 billion in new financial commitments were pledged globally by more than 170 actors from 82 countries. Ghana was there. Ghana made commitments. The question now is: are those commitments enough, and will they be delivered?
Ghana made 10 commitments at the 2025 N4G Summit. One of the most significant is a pledge to spend at least $6 million annually from 2026 for the procurement of essential nutrition commodities including ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), iron-folic acid tablets, vitamin A supplements, and anthropometric equipment for measuring child growth.
This financial commitment is meaningful. For years, Ghana’s nutrition programmes have depended heavily on donor funding, leaving services vulnerable to aid cuts and supply disruptions. A domestic budget line for nutrition commodities signals a shift toward ownership and sustainability. It also directly supports Ghana’s Nutrition for Growth commitments from the 2021 Tokyo Summit, several of which remain off track.
The Bigger Picture
The 2025 N4G Summit was about more than funding. It called for systemic change: embedding nutrition in food systems, health coverage, climate resilience, and gender equality. Every dollar invested in nutrition is estimated to return $16 to the local economy. Yet malnutrition still costs Ghana an estimated 6.4 per cent of its GDP annually. That is not a public health statistic. It is an economic emergency.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has acknowledged that converting summit outcomes into actionable change requires transparent policy dialogue and locally driven solutions.
Commitments made in Paris must be tracked, funded, and implemented in Ghana’s communities. Programmes must move from pilot scale to national coverage. That will not happen without sustained political will, dedicated domestic financing, and public accountability.
Commitments made on global stages matter. But they only become meaningful when they translate into services in communities. The question is not what Ghana promised in Paris. It is what Ghana delivers at home.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
Cabbage is very rich in fibre, the main supplier of roughage. This helps the body retain water and it maintains the bulkiness of the food as it moves through the bowels.
Thus, it is a good remedy for constipation and other digestion-related problems.
Ingredients
-1 large cabbage
– 4 large fresh tomatoes
– 1 large onion
– Pepper
-Garlic
-2 large salmon
-1 tin of mackerel
-2 large green pepper
-Salt to taste
Preparation
-Chop cabbage roughly and wash in a large pot of water
-Pour vinegar on it and wait until you make other preparations. Then drain.
-Heat coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat
-Cook and stir onion in hot oil until onion turns dark brown.
-Blend tomatoes, green pepper, garlic and onion and add to the oil
-Add tomato paste, mackerel and salmon to stew
-Add cabbage, stir and cover to cook for 7 – 10 minutes
-Allow to simmer when it is soft and serve with rice, yam etc.
