The Ghana Statistical Service is calling for a fundamental shift in how Ghana tackles food insecurity, warning that one-size-fits-all approaches will no longer deliver results as vulnerabilities deepen across regions and households.

In recommendations accompanying the latest Quarterly Food Insecurity Report, the Government is urged to “target high-burden regions with tailored food security, agriculture, and market-access solutions instead of one-size-fits-all approaches.”

The report further calls for the expansion of nutrition-sensitive social protection, specifically prioritising female-headed households and families with children and elderly members, who continue to face the highest levels of vulnerability.

Crucially, the recommendations emphasise the need to “link food security to jobs and livelihoods,” with a focus on skills development, youth employment, and rural income diversification, positioning food insecurity as both a social and economic challenge.

Investment in education and child nutrition is also highlighted as critical to reducing food insecurity and breaking long-term vulnerability.

At the sub-national level, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies are encouraged to use district-level food insecurity and labour data to identify vulnerable communities and align local development plans accordingly, while supporting community-based nutrition and livelihood programmes, particularly in rural and high-dependency households.

For development partners, the report recommends aligning financial and technical support with region-specific food insecurity patterns and nutrition risks identified in the data, while backing integrated programmes that link food security with jobs, education, health, and climate resilience. Continued investment in high-frequency data systems and analytical capacity is also flagged as essential for strengthening early warning and policy responsiveness.

“Continue investing in high-frequency data systems and analytical capacity to strengthen early warning and policy responsiveness.”

Meanwhile, civil society and the private sector are encouraged to use the evidence to target interventions and investments toward the most affected regions and population groups, support livelihood diversification, strengthen food value chains, and improve access to affordable nutrition, particularly for vulnerable households.

The Ghana Statistical Service, for its part, says it will sustain and strengthen the use of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey and related surveys and expand analytical integration across labour, poverty, and nutrition data to support timely, evidence-based decision-making.