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A facilitator demonstrates weight measurement during a training on outreach services for health workers in the East Mamprusi Municipality. Photo by Abdul-Malik Abukari/USAID Advancing Nutrition.
Photo Credit: Abdul-Malik Abukari/USAID Advancing Nutrition

In 17 districts of Ghana, USAID Advancing Nutrition has supported health authorities to train 715 health workers to improve the delivery of essential nutrition services, especially to pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under the age of five.

Community health nurses and officers, enrolled nurses, midwives, nutrition officers, disease control officers, and field technicians learned about infant and young child feeding, anemia prevention and control, and community-based management of acute malnutrition. They also received training in outreach planning and in the use of data to improve health service delivery.

“For some years now, we have not had such training for our staff,” said the district director for health services for Tempane District, Mr. Cosmos Miyala. He underscored that the training was therefore critical to addressing the capacity gaps that hinder quality service delivery.

To further strengthen nutrition service delivery, USAID Advancing Nutrition is supporting health workers in conducting outreach to communities to render services, including growth monitoring, counseling, and micronutrient supplementation. Health authorities receive support to conduct supportive supervision and build the capacity of health workers, which will address gaps in health care provision and enable health workers to apply quality improvement approaches to health care delivery at their facilities.

In Ghana, stunting in children decreased from 23 percent in 2011 to 18 percent in 2017. Anemia also dropped significantly in children (66% to 36%) and in women (41% to 22%) between 2014 and 2017, according to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (2014) and the Ghana National Micronutrients Survey (2018). Strengthening the capacity of health workers is essential to improving the malnutrition situation in the country.

USAID Advancing Nutrition provides technical support to advance the Government of Ghana’s efforts to improve district planning for equitable delivery of services that promote household resilience and early childhood growth and development.