Nutritional and Health Aspects of Native West African Foods is part of an ongoing series that continues to build out Elsevier's Nutritional and Health Aspects of Traditional and Ethnic Foods series. Written by a gender diverse team of experts, this book explores native and wild West African foods from Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria where 60% of West Africa live. Through valorization trials, the book analyzes nutritional components and the processing and safety of native plants and botanicals and shows how indigenous foods such as grains, fruits, tubers, fungi and cheese make a global impact on diet-related health claims and disease.From handling and processing methods to regulatory issues and sustainable farming, this book presents a framework to discover the influence of historical eating habits on today's diets.• Promotes global availability and insight into native West African foods available in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria • Reviews the safety, processing and health benefits of these foods • Explores both scientific and anecdotal diet-related health claims • Analyzes nutritional components of native plants through valorization trials for global market • Presents framework to determine if these foods meet local and international regulatory requirements and presents strategies to remedy non-compliance

This brief summarizes nutrition-relevant policies, strategies, and action plans (all referred to as ‘policies’ in this brief) in West Africa. With a focus on the six nutrition challenges that make up the World Health Assembly (WHA) global targets, we examine i) nutrition context, policy objectives, indicators, budget, and activities, ii) key beneficiaries, actors and coordination, iii) monitoring, evaluation, and accountability, and iv) the extent to which current policies are aligned with the WHA targets.

Hunger, malnutrition, poor health, and deficient food systems are widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa. While much is known about African food systems and about African health and nutrition, our understanding of the interaction between food systems and health and nutrition is deficient. Moreover, the potential health gains from changes in the food system are frequently overlooked in policy design and implementation.The authors of The African Food System and its Interactions with Human Health and Nutrition examine how public policy and research aimed at the food system and its interaction with human health and nutrition can improve the well-being of Africans and help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Several of the MDGs focus on health-related challenges: hunger alleviation; maternal, infant, and child mortality; the control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; and the provision of safe water and improved sanitation. These challenges are intensified by problems of low agricultural and food system productivity, gender inequity, lack of basic infrastructure, and environmental degradation, all of which have direct and indirect detrimental effects on health, nutrition, and the food system.Reflecting the complexity and multidisciplinary nature of these problems and their solutions, this book features contributions by world-renowned experts in economics, agriculture, health, nutrition, food science, and demography. Contributors: Harold Alderman, World Bank; Christopher B. Barrett, Cornell University; Kathryn J. Boor, Cornell University; Laura K. Cramer, Cornell University; Stuart Gillespie, International Food Policy Research Institute; Anna Herforth, Cornell University; Dorothy Nakimbugwe, Makerere University; Rebecca Nelson, Cornell University, Onesmo K. ole-MoiYoi, Kenyatta University and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute; Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell University and the University of Copenhagen; Marie T. Ruel, International Food Policy Research Institute; David E. Sahn, Cornell University; Barbara Boyle Torrey, Population Reference Bureau; E. Fuller Torrey, Stanley Medical Research Institute; Joachim von Braun, University of Bonn; Speciosa Wandira, Concave International; Derrill D. Watson, Cornell University

This collection of studies, first published in 1985, describes some contemporary problems of selected pastoral and agro-pastoral communities of the West African Sahel. Several important features of the Sahel are illustrated: the significance of seasonal factors in causing periodic stress amongst people and animals, the economic uncertainty introduced by interannual climactic variations, as well as the role of traditional systems of social and economic organisation in providing some support during periods of need. The findings presented here are published in co-operation with the Sahel Institute, a regional research organisation set up in the early 1970s with representation from eight Sahelian countries - Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta.

Food security is defined as the ability of countries, regions, or households to meet their required levels of food consumption at all times. Food security is an important component of human welfare, and it can act as an indicator of a region's development. This book addresses the roles of trade, policy development, and economic cooperation in creating sustainable food security in the West African region. The largely micro-level analysis is conducted on empirical data from the household where decisions on production and consumption take place. Food security is discussed in terms of its component parts, namely: availability of food (production and trade), its accessibility (incomes and poverty status), and its utilisation (health and nutrition).