Africa’s food systems are failing in plain sight. Millions of people across the continent lack access to affordable, nutritious diets, even as agriculture remains the backbone of most African economies. Climate change is disrupting harvests and urbanisation is reshaping demand. Malnutrition and diet-related disease are rising simultaneously. The problem is not a lack of knowledge about what needs to change but the persistent failure to translate that knowledge into policy and practice at scale.
The launch of the Africa Regional Collaborative for Agriculture, Nutrition and Health at the University of Ghana in Accra represents a direct attempt to close that gap. Co-led by three African institutions, being the University of Ghana, the Policy Studies Institute in Ethiopia and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, the ANH-ARC serves as the African node of the global ANH Academy Science-Policy Platform, connecting the continent to a worldwide network of more than 13,000 researchers, practitioners and policymakers working to strengthen the role of evidence in shaping food systems, nutrition and health outcomes.
Representing the University of Ghana’s Vice-Chancellor, Felix Asante described the initiative as “a significant step toward a more coordinated, evidence-driven and African-led approach to transforming our food systems.” He was direct about the structural failure the initiative is designed to address. “Agriculture, nutrition and health are deeply interconnected but too often, our policies, investments and institutions operate in silos,” said Asante.
The Principal Investigator and first Director of ANH-ARC,Amos Laar reinforced that framing. “Agriculture, nutrition and health can no longer operate in silos. It is important to have integrated, evidence-driven approaches to policymaking that translate research into practical decisions improving diets, health and livelihoods across the continent,” added Laar.
The launch brought together stakeholders from academia, government, civil society and international organisations across the UK, Canada, the US, Sweden, South Africa, Ethiopia, Senegal, Botswana and Rwanda, with support from the Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The initiative’s secretariat is hosted at the University of Ghana, a designation that underscores the institution’s strategic role in advancing the science-policy interface on food systems. For Accra, transforming Africa’s food systems will require sustained collaboration, bold thinking and the institutional courage to ensure that knowledge is not merely generated but acted upon.
