Households Sell Assets as Coping Pressures Deepen — GSS
The Ghana Statistical Service has raised fresh concerns over deepening household vulnerabilities, warning that many families are resorting to reduced meal quality, borrowing, and asset sales to cope with mounting economic pressures.
According to the latest Food Insecurity Vulnerability Report, produced in collaboration with the World Food Programme and other development partners, Ghana’s food security situation reflects a fragile balance, where headline consumption figures mask underlying stress.
The report, based on the Mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM) survey, provides near real-time insights into household conditions across the country. While a majority of households continue to maintain what is classified as “acceptable” food consumption, the data shows that about one in three households is relying on medium to high coping strategies. More concerning, nearly one in four households has already reached crisis levels.
Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said the findings expose structural weaknesses that require urgent, targeted policy responses. He stressed that the goal of the report is to close critical data gaps and ensure that decision-making is guided by timely and actionable evidence.
“These findings bring clarity into focus and must translate into decisive action,” he indicated, cautioning that reliance on national averages alone risks overlooking deeply concentrated pockets of vulnerability.
The coping strategies identified in the report point to a troubling trend. Households are not only cutting back on the quality and diversity of their meals but are also increasingly borrowing money or selling productive assets to survive. While these measures may provide short-term relief, they undermine long-term resilience and economic stability.
The report highlights that vulnerability is unevenly distributed and “not random.” Northern Ghana remains the most exposed region, with smallholder farmers and households with lower levels of education facing significantly higher risks. These groups are particularly vulnerable to income shocks, climate variability, and rising food prices.
A key driver of the situation is affordability rather than availability. High food expenditure burdens and weak purchasing power mean that even when food is available in markets, many households cannot afford adequate nutrition.
The GSS is therefore calling for a shift toward more precise and targeted interventions. Recommended actions include scaling up social protection programmes, improving targeting systems, and investing in climate-smart agriculture and diversified livelihoods to strengthen resilience.
The report also points to a gap between policy and impact, noting that only a small proportion of affected households currently receive any form of assistance.
Importantly, the findings align with Ghana’s broader development agenda and global commitments such as United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end hunger and improve nutrition.
Dr. Iddrisu emphasised that the mVAM system represents a critical evolution in data collection, offering faster insights compared to traditional surveys, which are often too slow to capture rapidly changing conditions.
He called for stronger collaboration between government, development partners, and research institutions to ensure that data-driven insights are effectively translated into policy action.
The central message of the report is clear: early intervention, better targeting, and sustained investment in resilience are essential to preventing temporary hardship from becoming long-term deprivation, as Ghana navigates an increasingly complex food security landscape.
