IFPRI Report

Roundtable Workshop Marks Beginning of Urban Food and Nutrition Study in Ghana

Recent information from Ghana suggests that poverty and corresponding declines in nutritional status are increasing more rapidly in the capital city of Accra, particularly in poor slum areas, than in rural areas. Accra has doubled its size in the last 20 years, growing to about 1.7 million people in 1995. Ghana is the first country in which IFPRI will undertake research on urban food security and nutrition under a new research program on the implications of urbanization for food, nutrition, and agriculture.

This research effort was initiated in February of this year, when some 50 policymakers, urban administrators, government leaders, researchers, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations, community groups, and donor organizations met at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, to discuss the issues of concern. Among the areas identified as important for research by the participants at the workshop were the links between poverty, unemployment, and malnutrition; street foods, urban agriculture, and urban household food security strategies; food preparation and marketing regulatory issues; and the effects of structural adjustment on urban populations, of urbanization on diet composition, and of increased urban employment opportunities for women on child welfare. The workshop was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.