IFPRI Report
Volume 20, Number 2
July 1998
Ghana Seminar on Urban Livelihoods and Food Security
As part of IFPRI’s work on urban food and nutrition security, a national seminar on “Urban Livelihoods, Food and Nutrition Security in Greater Accra” was held in Accra on May 6. The national seminar was organized to present and discuss the findings of a two-year collaborative study between IFPRI, Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research of the University of Ghana, and the World Health Organization (WHO), with additional support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The seminar was attended by more than 100 people, representing various ministries of the government of Ghana; the greater Accra metropolitan area; local nongovernmental organizations; donors such as CIDA, IDRC, and WHO; and members of the communities where the study was carried out.
In the day-long seminar, study results were presented related to urban and periurban livelihoods; food and nutrition security; health and child-caring capacity; and policy implications.
The study finds that livelihood strategies in Accra are predominantly production and exchange based. Labor is the most important asset to urban dwellers, and produces the most income, especially among low-income groups. The exchange of money and goods between households plays a critical role in supplementing labor-based activities.
Women’s income-generating activities are heavily concentrated in petty trading and the preparation and sale of street foods. Men are three times more likely than women to have a protected wage job. Income diversification is an important strategy for reducing risk.
In Accra, 24 percent of urban households are food insecure. Although households headed by females have lower mean incomes than those headed by males, they devote a larger share of the budget to food. A substantial share of calories comes from foods purchased away from home. Accra households spend one-third of their food budget on street foods.
The study finds that, among children 3 to 36 months old, 18 percent are stunted (low height-for-age), while only 5 percent are wasted (low weight-for-height). Poor feeding practices are associated with poor long-term nutritional and health status.
The study associated long hours of work of the primary caregiver with poor nutritional status of children. Children whose caregivers work in the markets and on the streets (most women) have the worst nutritional status.
With the rapid pace of urban population growth and the increase in urban poverty, the problems identified are likely to intensify over the next two decades. While the food situation in Accra does not now constitute a crisis or emergency, it requires increased attention from policymakers and program planners. Rural poverty and food crises may be more pressing problems at the moment, but trends indicate that urban poverty is catching up. In general, severe child malnutrition is not the largest problem in the metropolitan area, and greater expenditure on nutritional rehabilitation is not necessarily the solution. Rather, longer-term efforts to reduce mild to moderate malnutrition are needed. Participants agreed that indirect means of reducing malnutrition, such as improving the capacity of vulnerable groups to earn income, recognizing the special needs of working mothers, and putting in place simple systems to identify those in special need of assistance were most effective.
