Karaga district, Ghana: Infant and young child feeding and food-based recommendations– findings from an Optifood analysis and focused ethnography study


This technical brief presents findings from research conducted by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) during 2014, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its development partners in Northern Ghana. 

The research sought to identify strategies to improve the nutritional quality of the diet of infants and young children using locally available and affordable foods. Specifically, it aimed to identify a set of evidence-based, population-specific food-based recommendations that can be promoted to improve infant and child feeding (IYCF) practices among farming communities in Ghana’s Northern Region.

The results of this research help contextualise community-based IYCF guidelines for this population and identify nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive strategies that can support improved IYCF.