Presented by Mahama Saaka (UDS) and Jean-Baptiste Tignegre (WorldVeg) at Africa RISING Ghana Country Planning Meeting, Tamale, Ghana, and Virtual, 24 - 25 June 2020.

1. Nutrition activities 2019/2020
Mahama Saaka1 and Jean-Baptiste2
1University for Development Studies (UDS) and 2World Vegetable Centre
Africa RISING Ghana Country Planning Meeting
24 - 25 June 2020
Tamale, Ghana & Virtual

2. Team contribution to outcomes and outputs
Outcome no.
and subactivity
Output no.
Location/sites
for sub-activity Research team
Outcome 2,
sub-activity
GH2121-19
Output 2.1 25 communities in 5 districts
(Savelugu, Tolon, Wa West,
Nadowli and Kassena-Nankana)
1. Mahama Saaka
2. Chrisantus Daari
3. Khadija Wemah
4. Benedict Ebito Boyubie
Outcome 2,
sub-activity
GH2122-19
1. Output 2.1 25 communities in 5 districts
(Savelugu, Tolon, Wa West,
Nadowli and Kassena-Nankana)
1. Mahama Saaka
2. Jean-Baptiste
3. Khadija Wemah
4. Benedict Ebito Boyubie
Outcome 2,
sub-activity
GH2123-19
1. Output 2.1 25 communities in 5 districts
(Savelugu, Tolon, Wa West,
Nadowli and Kassena-Nankana)
1. Mahama Saaka
2. Chrisantus Daari
3. Khadija Wemah
4. Benedict Ebito Boyubie

3. • We evaluated whether health/nutrition education via innovative radio drama series
could improve maternal knowledge and stimulate positive preventive health seeking
behaviours and practices related to meal frequency, dietary diversity, and food
consistency.
• The effect of the radio listening on health and nutrition-related attitude (HNRAs) was
substantial as there was a significant difference of 3.947 (CI: 3.07 – 4.82, p < 0.001)
between intervention and control groups for the adjusted mean HNRAs ( 26.478 versus
22.532).
• Health and nutrition education using mass media in the form of radio drama
significantly positively increased health/nutrition related knowledge and positive
attitude towards health seeking behaviors.
• Interventions that improve nutritional knowledge levels may not necessarily improve
nutritional status
• The intervention did not have significant effects on the nutritional status according to
Z-score of height for age or Z-score of weight for height.
Key research findings

4. Comparison of changes in IYCF
Intervention Communities Comparison Communities DID
Core IYCF indicators Baseline
n (%)
Follow-up
n (%)
Difference Baseline
n (%)
Follow-up
n (%)
Difference
Complementary feeding
rate foods at 6 months
263 (88.9) 228 (91.9) 3.0 237 (79.3) 221 (80.4) 1.1 2.2
1Minimum meal frequency 204 (81.3) 200 (93.0) 11.7 173 (57.7) 266 (96.4) 38.7 -27.0***
Minimum dietary diversity
(≥ 4 food groups)
75 (25.7) 121 (49.0) 23.3 5 (1.7) 42 (15.3) 13.6 9.7*
2Minimum Acceptable diet 63 (25.4) 106 (51.2) 25.4 5 (1.7) 41 (15.0) 13.3 12.1**
3Appropriate
complementary
55 (22.4) 100 (49.3) 26.9 3 (1.0) 34 (12.4) 11.4 15.5***

5. • 25 community radio listening groups established and trained: October 2019.
• Follow-up survey on nutrition education on radio: May 2020.
• Nutrition education on 5 community radios: August 2019.
• Article on the effect of radio health/nutrition education on dietary diversity, child
feeding practices, maternal and child nutritional outcomes –December 2020.
• Functioning and productive home gardens: March 2020.
• An article on effect of joint nutrition education and homestead vegetable
production on empowerment of women and household food security: December
2020.
• Formation and utilization of Men’s Support Groups (MSG) for the delivery of health
and nutrition messages in 25 intervention communities: Sept. 2020.
• A paper on Using men engagement in nutrition education to improve child feeding
practices/nutrition: Dec. 2020.
Team deliverables

7. • Contribution to the human domain with respect to increasing dietary diversity of
women and children aged 6-23 months at household level ( nutrition security).
Team contributions to SIAF
Contributions to SIAF
• Impact evaluation of nutrition education on radio showed that a significant increase in
intervention communities with respect to minimum dietary diversity (DID = 9.7
percentage points, p = 0.014) and minimum acceptable diet (DID = 12.1 percentage
points, p = 0.001).
Research progress towards outcomes
• Nutrition education in the form of jingles, spots and drama has been evaluated
• TOT on home container vegetable gardening held for 15 district agricultural field
extension workers.
• Container vegetable gardening Training held for 180 farmers and women’s groups in 18
communities
• 20 functional care groups involving both men and women formed and inaugurated.
• Monthly nutrition education sessions for men’s and women’s groups commenced in
October 2019.

8. The nutrition education on radio was carried out in strong collaboration with Ghana
Health Service staff who will be in a position to extend the activities to other communities
where they operate.
Scaling efforts
Future direction of research
• Current findings highlight the potential of using mass media in the form of radio drama
to increase nutrition related knowledge, practices and behaviors.
• However, nutrition education alone may not be sufficient to positively impact on
nutrition.
• Nutrition communication campaigns may be implemented in conjunction with other
interventions that can leverage the individual from knowledge to practice.
• The way forward is identifying the possible effective interventions that can move
people from the knowledge levels to positive practices for improved health and
nutrition of deprived rural communities

9. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
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