Professor Amos Laar, of the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, was one of the invited speakers at the 2025 Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris, France. This high-level international summit brought together world leaders, public health experts, policymakers, and civil society to deliberate on ways to accelerate progress in transforming food systems and tackling malnutrition in all its forms.
At the invitation of the Government of France and UNICEF, Professor Laar participated in three separate sessions at the Summit - Transforming Food Environments for Children, co-hosted by UNICEF, WHO and French Members of Parliament and which took place at Salle de l’Assemblée Nationale, Palais Bourbon (The French National Assembly), in Paris; the´ N4G Scientific Conference hosted by CIRAD and the French Development Agency (AFD), and a Round Table on creating enabling environments through laws and policies to prevent and control obesity and diet-related NCDS hosted by IDLO and WHO.
Professor Laar shared Ghana’s pioneering efforts to create healthier food environments through a bundle of double-duty food-based policies. He highlighted the successful passage of the Excise Duty Amendment Act (2023), which levies taxes on health-harming products including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and the ongoing development of a bundle of food-based policies - including front of pack nutrition labelling, marketing restrictions, public food procurement, and food-related fiscal policy for the promotion of healthy diets. The development of these policies is facilitated by the Healthier Diets for Healthy Lives (HD4HL) Project, which Prof. Laar leads. He emphasized the critical role of multi-sectoral collaboration, civil society advocacy, and academic technical backstopping in advancing these reforms.
Following the event, he highlighted Ghana´s experience creating enabling environments through laws and policies to prevent and control obesity and diet-related NCDS.
“The Ghana experience reflects both the challenges and promise of food policy reform in an era of rising diet-related morbidities. The Excise Duty Amendment Act (2023), which introduced a tax on SSBs, was the product of hours of groundwork - evidence generation, stakeholder engagement, and persistent advocacy. The power of coalitions had to be leveraged – a coalition of coalitions is how I should express it. A coalition of researchers, working with a coalition of civil society organization and public health associations and several government sectors”, notes Professor Laar.
From a philosophical perspective, what we are doing in Ghana as far as this food policy work is concerned, represents a shift from individual responsibility to collective, structural accountability. We are moving from simply educating the public or telling the public to take responsibility of their health to holding systems and systems actors for instance, industries accountable for the environments they shape. From a public health lens, the rationale is clear. With increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and other NCDs, the government recognized the urgent need to adopt fiscal, regulatory and informational levers to shift consumption patterns. These policies come in handy. Practically, the path was not linear. Civil society coalitions – particularly members of the A4H Coalitions (including CAPHA, Ghana NCD Alliance, GAND, GPHA, GMA) - played a pivotal role in shaping public discourse and countering industry narratives. Political will, however, was the ultimate catalyst. The convergence of an enabling political moment, public awareness, and strategic partnerships made it possible, Professor Laar narrated.
The N4G Summit is also the venue where Governments officially pledge their commitments to address key national and challenges. Ghana’s 2025 N4G Commitments (10 of them). Achieving these commitments, will assure climate resilience, nutrition security, and sustainable food systems in Ghana as well as increased investment in these areas. Professor Laar was commissioned by the Government of Ghana to facilitate in the development of these Commitments. The School of Public Health is proud of this recognition and remains committed to driving public health innovation through evidence-based policy and global engagement.
About the School of Public Health: Established in 1994, it is Ghana’s premier School of Public Health, and is dedicated to excellence in research, teaching, and community engagement. The School’s Mission is “To train public health practitioners who will be leaders and change agents for health development in Ghana in particular and in the wider African context” and its Vision, “To promote knowledge and be lead advocates for needed public health reforms in Ghana.” For more information on the school’s initiatives, please visit its website https://publichealth.ug.edu.gh/