It was on the theme: “Addressing the Commercial Determinants of Health in Ghana.”

The four-year project (2024-2028) was launched at a stakeholder engagement by team members in Accra.

The project is being funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR, UK) and it involves partnership between four leading academic and research institutions.

They are the Global Health Policy Unit, University of Edinburgh; PRICELESS, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST, Ghana), and African Population Health Research Center, Kenya.

Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Minister of Health, in an address read on his behalf, said the project was visionary, and that it underpinned Ghana’s efforts to strengthen public health strategies to reduce preventable risks and advancing health equity.

He said global frameworks championed multisectoral collaboration, transparency, and legal reform, and noble among them were WHO’s 2025 Global Report on Commercial Determinants of Health, the Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA), WHA74.16, and the Rio Political Declaration.

“These instruments urge nations to regulate harmful corporate practices, manage conflicts of interest, and align commerce with public good,” he stated.

The Minister said the influence of commercial interest on health outcomes was both profound and complex, making it imperative that Ghanaians collectively acknowledge and address such dynamics.

“Commercial determinants of health including corporate practices in tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, digital media, and environmental pollution are driving NCDs, compromising mental and environmental well-being, and deepening health inequities, particularly within vulnerable communities.

“These harms are often amplified by aggressive marketing, political lobbying, and inadequate regulatory safeguards. What is needed now is strengthened intersectoral governance, public accountability, and alignment with global frameworks.

Professor Jeff Collin of the Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh said the project sought to develop strategies for managing conflict of interest and promoting policy coherence to address the commercial determinants of health and tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
He noted that among the key drivers of the diseases were the global industries that manufacture and distribute unhealthy products, including tobacco, alcohol, junk foods, and fossil fuels.

“Their direct and indirect impacts on health and their activities in shaping policies to advance interests constitute the commercial determinants of health,” he stated.

Prof Collin said the overall aim of the new NIHR-funded collaborative initiative was to explore how commercial actors influenced population health in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to inform the development of policies that could effectively promote health and sustainable development.

Professor Francis B. Zotor of the Fred Newton Binka School of Public Health, UHAS and the chairman of the occasion called for collaboration to help find ways to address challenges confronting public health.