Leveraging INFORMAS' Approaches to Advance Healthy Food Policies in Ghana

INFORMAS

Overview

Ghana is battling multiple forms of malnutrition: persistent undernutrition (stunting rates currently 17%) and micronutrient deficiencies, alongside rapidly rising overweight/obesity (currently 50% among women). Diet‑related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) contribute to around 40% of all adult deaths.

Responding to this, we implemented six research modules from INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/NCD Research, Monitoring and Action Support): The Food Environment Policy Index, Food Promotion, Food Provision, Food Retail, Food Labelling, and Food Prices to generate policy-influencing evidence. We shared the evidence with government ministries and agencies, lawmakers, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, and UN agencies.

Next, we mobilized civil society coalitions to address policy inertia. Third, we built capacity of policy actors. Through coordinated advocacy, scholar activism and strategic engagements, we created an enabling environment and political buy-in for a bundle of double-duty food-based policies.

In February 2023, Ghana launched its first-ever

food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs), and enacted a Health Tax (in March 2023), which imposes a 20% tax on sugar‑sweetened beverages (SSBs). In 2025, the Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives (HD4HL) Coalition facilitated the development of four policies - front‑of‑pack labeling, marketing restrictions, public food procurement, and a food-related fiscal policies. Implementation of the policies is underpinned by a locally developed fit-for-local purpose nutrient profiling system.

Key actors

Government, law makers and regulators: Ministry of Health and its agencies; Ministry of Finance and its agencies; Ministry of Food and Agriculture; and the National Development Planning Commission.
Legislators: Parliamentary Select Committees on Health and Finance.
Researchers: Several universities in Ghana; international experts from INFORMAS; and funded initiatives (including the African Food Environment Research Network, Dietary Transitions in Ghana’s Cities, MEALS4NCDs, and the HD4HL projects).
Academia and Civil Society Actors: comprising academics, queen mothers, health professionals, and a member of parliament.
UN and other Development Partners: WHO; UNICEF; FAO.
Funders (IDRC/CRDI; Rockefeller Foundation; UK-AID/Gates Foundation)

Alignment with the EAT-Lancet Commission

Our story advances the EAT‑Lancet’s “healthy diets from sustainable food systems” by:

Shifting supply and demand through fiscal and regulatory disincentives (SSB tax, warning labels, and marketing restrictions) to encourage sustainable consumption patterns (nutrition-health dimension of sustainable healthy diets).
Promoting nutritious, locally‑sourced foods via a national nutrient profiling system and FBDGs to guide healthful food choices and public food procurement programs.
Measuring progress via action research and implementation of INFORMAS modules, we track SSB sales post‑tax, monitor policy adoption milestones.
Building a strong, multi-sectoral coalition through a collective impact approach – including measuring problems and progress, coordinating synergistic actions, and establishing a backbone organization.

Lessons Learned

Sustained food policy activism requires deliberate strategies:

investing in context-relevant evidence,
translating evidence into actionable advocacy,
and mobilizing trusted coalitions that unite academia, civil society, and government.

Scholar activism, especially when backed by well-organized, purpose-driven coalitions, can overcome policy gradualism.

Next steps

Finalize ministerial sign-off of nutrient profiling system, front-of-pack labeling, marketing restrictions, public food procurement and food-related fiscal policies.
Strengthen implementation capacity through training for Ministries Departments and Agencies, industry compliance guidelines, and robust monitoring frameworks.
Expand community readiness by engaging regional health directorates and civil society organizations for sub-national rollout.
Evaluate impact by routinely benchmarking policy change and tracking shifts in SSB sales and school food environments using INFORMAS methods and adjusting advocacy strategies accordingly.
Sustain the collective effort by institutionalizing coordination mechanisms, and maintaining a unified coalition to resist industry pushback, monitor policy impact, and adapt strategies over time.

For more information contact: Amos Laar at alaar@ug.edu.gh, Lana Vanderlee, Boyd Swinburn

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