Descriptive analysis of changes in Ghana's food availability and food safety information between 2010 and 2020

Access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food is essential to ensure food and nutrition security and healthy lives for all. Secure access to nutritious food ensures healthy eating habits, economic growth, and stability in an economy. However, food insecurity and malnutrition persist globally. In Ghana, more than half of food-insecure people reside in the Northern ecological zones of the country. Moreover, Ghana lacks a systematic food security monitoring system to track food insecurity among vulnerable populations. This study reviewed existing evidence on the current situation and changes related to food production, trade, safety, and consumption in Ghana, as part of the process to develop food-based dietary guidelines for the country. The literature review included peer-reviewed articles published from 2010 – 2020 in Ghana to document household-level food production, consumption, and safety issues. In addition, food disappearance data (from 2010 to 2018) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was analysed. Means and compound annual growth rates were calculated for each food item included. The results showed that per capita food production was higher than per capita consumption in all the food categories studied, except for vegetables, and fish and fishery products. Food consumption was centred on a few priority staple crops such as cassava, maize, rice, and yams, with less consideration given to underutilised foods such as akokono (palm weevil larvae). Food imports exceeded food exports in all food categories except 1) cocoa beans and products, 2) root crops and tubers, 3) oil-bearing crops and nuts, and 4) fruits and products. Fruit and vegetable consumption in Ghana has been declining since 2013. There was also a rise in the import and consumption of processed foods, especially tomato paste, sugars, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Food safety issues included microbial contamination, aflatoxin contamination, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked fish, mercury in fish, pesticide and heavy metal residues in vegetables and fruits, and food adulteration. The evidence synthesized from this study will be useful to inform the development of food-based dietary guidelines for Ghana

Correlates of Complete Childhood Vaccination in East African Countries.

Despite the benefits of childhood vaccinations, vaccination rates in low-income countries (LICs) vary widely. Increasing coverage of vaccines to 90% in the poorest countries over the next 10 years has been estimated to prevent 426 million cases of illness and avert nearly 6.4 million childhood deaths worldwide. Consequently, we sought to provide a comprehensive examination of contemporary vaccination patterns in East Africa and to identify common and country-specific barriers to complete childhood vaccination. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, we looked at the prevalence of complete vaccination for polio, measles, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and DTwPHibHep (DTP) as recommended by the WHO among children ages 12 to 23 months. We conducted multivariable logistic regression within each country to estimate associations between complete vaccination status and health care access and sociodemographic variables using backwards stepwise regression. Vaccination varied significantly by country. In all countries, the majority of children received at least one dose of a WHO recommended vaccine; however, in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda less than 50% of children received a complete schedule of recommended vaccines. Being delivered in a public or private institution compared with being delivered at home was associated with increased odds of complete vaccination status. Sociodemographic covariates were not consistently associated with complete vaccination status across countries. Although no consistent set of predictors accounted for complete vaccination status, we observed differences based on region and the location of delivery. These differences point to the need to examine the historical, political, and economic context of each country in order to maximize vaccination coverage. Vaccination against these childhood diseases is a critical step towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015 and thus should be a global priority

The Role of Energy Innovation and Corruption in Carbon Emissions: Evidence Based on the EKC Hypothesis

This study investigates how energy innovations and corruption affect carbon emissions. To this end, a panel data model of 16 selected OECD countries is employed, spanning the period of 1995–2016. The empirical framework falls within the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), which explores the relationship between the economic growth and carbon emissions. The empirical results show that when economic systems interact with corruption, positive effects that energy innovations have on environmental quality are reduced. Furthermore, the amount of economic growth needed to limit environmental pollution levels is also distorted. Corruption seems to be pernicious for the environment in the long term, as it limits the stage at which decontamination occurs; i.e., corruption reduces the positive effect generated by measures focused on energy innovation in terms of reducing environmental pollution. These findings are expected to be significant in terms of implementing anti-corruption measures and effective environmental policies, and they call for appropriate policy measures that might limit the effects of corruption on environmental quality. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG