Upper West Region grappling with poor nutrition

The Upper West Region is grappling with a poor nutrition situation, statistics from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) has indicated.

About 22 per cent of children in the region are stunted, 14 per cent underweight, five per cent wasting and a whopping 74 per cent have anaemia.

Thirty-six per cent of women in their reproductive age are reportedly anaemic.

Mr. Chrissantus Danaah Dari, the Upper West Regional Nutrition Officer for the Ghana Health Service (GHS), gave the statistics during a multi-sectoral Regional Nutrition Coordination Body meeting, in Wa.

He attributed the situation to high infections, poor maternal and child care and inadequate food intake or consumption of food with poor nutritional value.

Mr Dari said the overall goal of the coordination body meeting was for them to pool resources to be able to overcome the nutritional challenge.

He said promoting good nutrition through multi-sectoral collaboration was the way to go since the challenge was bigger for the GHS alone.

The meeting also sensitised stakeholders on nutrition and development to enable them to understand and play their roles very effectively to help arrest the situation.

He commended the World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Renewed Effort Against Child Hunger (UN REACH) for the support so far and appealed to all concerned about the situation to also support