Like other countries in the sub-region particularly West African economies, Ghana is grappling with multiple burdens of malnutrition which is accompanied by climate change that influence food production and consumption trends, and thereby leading to undernutrition and affecting overall development. In addition, growing incomes, accelerated urbanization, and expanding middle classes are also causing significant changes in consumer behavior and nutritional choices, necessitating both public and private expenditures for better food market integration. While food insecurity, and undernutrition (e.g. stunting, micronutrient deficiencies) persist, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases are rising rapidly. General nutrition situation and identification of the highest priority nutrition problems. Various estimates of nutritional status of Ghanaian children under aged 5 years show that 19% were stunted, 5% were wasted, and 11% were underweight. In 2018, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) showed nearly similar rates of stunting (18%), wasting (7%) and underweight (13%), suggesting that stunting prevalence improved only marginally during the last 5-6 years, whereas child wasting and underweight worsened during the period. Other significant problems of undernutrition in Ghana include a high prevalence anemia in children 6-59 months (55%), adolescent girls (48%) and women of reproductive age (42%). From the foregoing, the high priority nutrition challenges in Ghana, include “stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age; anemia in children 6-59 months of age, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age; but also, overweight and obesity in school-age children and younger adolescents; and overweight and obesity in women of reproductive age (15-49 y of age). Report of the Demographic and Health Surveys show a significant rising trend in adult obesity – from 10% in 1993 to 40% in 2015 (GSS et al., 2015). Also, the Ghanaian food environments (particularly in the urban areas) is currently characterized by cheap highly-processed foods, with nutrient-dense foods such fruits and vegetables lacking in meals because it is unaffordable (Laar, 2021).

Africa is confronted with the triple burden of malnutrition; it is also faced with the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. In many African countries, large proportions of the population rely on agriculture not only for their food - but also for their livelihoods. A transformed agricultural and food system is thus a necessary condition for addressing this double-triple challenge. Additionally, post harvest and food waste and losses reduce the availability of sufficient quantities of safe, edible and preferable foods. At least one third of food produced at farm level is lost due to inappropriate storage, infrastructure and agro-processing technologies in developing countries; and one third of food purchased is wasted at household and retail level.

One likely outcome of Ghana’s rising household incomes and increasing urbanization is a higher demand for processed foods. The question remains whether this expected higher demand will generate opportunities for growth in domestic agro-processing. This study assesses the performance of the agro-processing sector in Ghana through an inventory of processed and packaged food items in retail shops around Accra. The inventory shows: 1. The agro-processing subsector offers opportunities for domestic firms, with Ghanaian brands accounting for 27 percent of the items identified. 2. In addition to forming nearly a third of products identified, locally-processed products have penetrated diverse market segments with sales across a variety of retail outlets. 3. Regional imports of processed and packaged food items are low. Excluding South African brands, which accounted for 7.8 percent of imports, only 4.3 percent of the items were imported from other African countries. 4. Domestic agro-processors provided the highest share of products among processed starches and cereals, while imports dominate processed dairy, fruits, vegetables, and meat products.

The Europa Directory of International Organizations 2021 serves as an unequalled one-volume guide to the contemporary international system. Within a clear, unique framework the recent activities of all major international organizations are described in detail. Given alongside extensive background information the reader is able to assess the role and evolving functions of these organizations in today's world. The contact details, key personnel and activities of more than 2,000 international and regional entities have again been thoroughly researched and updated for this 23rd edition. Highlights in this edition include: - a fully revised Who's Who section with biographical details of the key players in the international system. - the response of the international community to crises and conflicts throughout the world. - specially-commissioned introductory essays cover topics including global environmental governance, transboundary water management, and multilateral governance and global action on health.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of agrifood systems to shocks and stresses and led to increased global food insecurity and malnutrition. Action is needed to make agrifood systems more resilient, efficient, sustainable and inclusive. The State of Food and Agriculture 2021 presents country-level indicators of the resilience of agrifood systems. The indicators measure the robustness of primary production and food availability, as well as physical and economic access to food. They can thus help assess the capacity of national agrifood systems to absorb shocks and stresses, a key aspect of resilience. The report analyses the vulnerabilities of food supply chains and how rural households cope with risks and shocks. It discusses options to minimize trade-offs that building resilience may have with efficiency and inclusivity. The aim is to offer guidance on policies to enhance food supply chain resilience, support livelihoods in the agrifood system and, in the face of disruption, ensure sustainable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to all.

Africa is home to a diversity of indigenous food crops that are locally adapted and less fastidious than exotic cultivars. Indigenous foods are foods of plant and animal origin that naturally exist in specific agro-ecological domains and are produced and consumed as part of traditional diets. Although indigenous foods have the potential to sustainably provide the much needed dietary nutrients to various communities across Africa, they have suffered progressive loss of cultural image, denigration, and utter neglect, being largely substituted with exotic foods. Consequently, they have earned the unenviable appellations of "forgotten", "neglected" or "orphan" foods due to the fact that they have received relatively little or no policy and research attention – especially towards their genetic improvement and value chain development.

PIM had a productive final year centered on synthesizing findings while continuing to respond to demand on the impacts of COVID-19 and preparing the transition to the new CGIAR portfolio. PIM findings and engagement contributed to Myanmar’s response to COVID-19, South Africa’s policies on resilience to climate change, Tunisia's policies for pastoral development, a reform of Nigeria’s national agricultural research system, Ghana’s fish seed and farm certification system, gender strategies for three agricultural value chains in Honduras, and genome editing guidelines for the agricultural sector in four African countries. PIM research informed policy documents of FAO, IFAD, One CGIAR, the UK Government, the World Bank and the World Food Programme. PIM tools enabled more equitable co-management of 76 protected areas in Peru and informed World Bank social protection projects. Books on food security in Bangladesh and Malawi, trade in Latin America, African agricultural value chains and gender were published. 42 PIM synthesis briefs and notes were issued, summarizing research results in key thematic areas. PIM contributed 181 journal articles, 8 journal issues (on demand driven seed systems, China’s response to COVID-19, agriculture and food security in China under COVID-19, food loss and waste, landscape restoration, multistakeholder fora in forestry and two issues on gender), 15 book chapters and about 500 non-peer-reviewed outputs. 16 PIM webinars were organized. PIM’s contributions to the United Nations Food Systems Summit covered agricultural extension, food system innovations and digital technologies, the future of small farms, the science-policy interface, the cost of ending hunger by 2030, food waste and loss, management of the commons and gender. Building on past PIM investments in economywide modeling tools and social accounting matrices, PIM teams continued to assess the impacts of COVID-19 and policy responses at country level. Lessons learned from PIM country-level analyses on COVID-19’s impacts on food systems, poverty and diets are summarized in a chapter of the IFPRI 2022 book “COVID19 and global food security: Two years later”. A paper in partnership with the CGIAR COVID19 Hub reviewed the literature on agri-food value chains for evidence of fractures and resilience in response to the pandemic. The results of coordinated studies on the impacts of COVID-19 on value chains in different countries were published. Several cross-CGIAR outputs initiated by PIM speak to the fulfillment of PIM’s convening role as an integrating program: the CGIAR Foresight Report and CGIAR foresight website; several outputs produced through the CGIAR Community of Excellence on Seed Systems Development, and the CGIAR book “Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: Past, present, and future” are examples. Other examples of PIM global public goods produced in 2021 are 27 innovations at various stages of uptake, a cross-cutting effort to distill PIM lessons on migration; new or updated social accounting matrices for 25 countries; and lessons and tools on stakeholder platforms for natural resource governance. Independent reviews assessed the effectiveness of PIM’s partnerships and the use by partners of PIM’s work on economywide modelling, agricultural insurance, tenure and governance, and the Ag-Incentives database.