The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) of Ghana, under the leadership of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), convened a district planning workshop to roll out the Food Systems and Nutrition Security (FSNS) Planning Toolkit to all 43 districts in the Ashanti Region from July 28th – 31st 2026 in Kumasi.
Building on the April 2026 Training of Trainers and pilot district workshop, this was the first regional rollout of the toolkit. It brought together around 270 district officers from across the 43 districts, including district planning and budgeting officers and district directors from the agriculture, health and local government sectors. In a first-of-its-kind effort, these officers sat around the same table to plan and cost FSNS interventions within their 2026–2029 Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs).
Food systems transformation and nutrition security is a focal area of Ghana’s Medium-Term National Development Policy Framework (MTNDPF) 2026–2029 and central to the country’s Nutrition for Growth commitments. Yet gaps persist at district level in turning national nutrition objectives into costed, actionable programs. The FSNS Planning Toolkit was developed to close this gap, equipping districts to produce comprehensive, costed plans with SMART indicators.
Key outputs of the workshop:
- Draft district FSNS plans, including costed priority interventions, completed by all 43 districts in the Ashanti Region.
- “Next steps” plans for each district to finalize, validate, and integrate its FSNS plan into the 2026–2029 MTDP and FY2027 Annual Action Plan.
- Commitments from district budget officers to ensure costed FSNS activities are budgeted and allocations released.
- Stronger multisectoral collaboration, with many officers meeting their counterparts from other sectors to plan together for the first time.
- A replicable blueprint for national rollout, including a standardized pre-workshop package and guidance on grouping districts by region.
The Ashanti experience shows that full-region FSNS planning is both feasible and effective. With RCCs equipped to lead FSNS efforts in their regions and the toolkit now proven at scale, Ghana is well positioned to extend costed food systems and nutrition planning to every district in the country.
FCDP is a SUN Movement resource available to all 67 SUN Countries. The platform aims to transform the nutrition financing landscape by inspiring and igniting government leaders to elevate nutrition financing as a priority and accelerate impact across sectors.
