The Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA): Social and Economic Impact of Child Undernutrition on Ghana’s Long-Term Development

Rome (Italy): World Food Programme (WFP), 2015.

English

80 p.

WFP331

Over the past two decades, Ghana has made some progress in improving the nutritional status of children, particularly those under 5 years of age, recording a substantial reduction in the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among these children. According to the most recent edition of the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), in 2011, stunting among children 5 years and younger was 23 percent, down from 30 percent in 1988. Also known as “chronic malnutrition,” stunting is a condition where children under 5 years old are assessed to be too short for their age. Wasting, or “acute malnutrition,” which carries an immediate increased risk of morbidity (disease) or mortality (death), refers to low weight-for-height, where a child is deemed too thin for his or her height. In 2011, about 6 percent of children were found to be wasting, an improvement on the 1988 figure of 8 percent. Underweight, which reflects a combination of “chronic and acute malnutrition,” refers to low weight-for-age, a situation where a child can be either too thin or short for his or her age . About 13 percent of children under 5 years in Ghana were underweight in 2011, a substantial reduction from the 31 percent recorded in 1988. Despite this overall progress, child undernutrition remains unacceptably high in Ghana.

Print and electronic ed.
Summary available in print version both in English and French.

Public

WFP 331

English

MON-015835