COMMUNIQUÉ AT THE END OF THE REGENERATIVE HEALTH AND NUTRITION PROGRAM REVIEW AND PLANNING MEETING HELD AT THE MANNA HEIGHTS HOTEL, MANKESSIM, CENTRAL REGION ON 17TH and 18TH     JANUARY 2008

We the 150 participants, at the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Program (Regen) review and planning meeting held in Mankessim, including Honorable Minister of Health and his Deputies, some District Chief Executives, Traditional Rulers (both chiefs and queen mothers), Directors and staff of Ministry of Health and its Agencies, Development Partners other MDAs, Media as participants and other stakeholders,

1. Convinced that Ghana can create wealth through health and Ghanaians can live longer and healthier lifestyles if provided with adequate information and enabled to do so

2. Concerned about the deteriorating life styles of Ghanaians and the associated high risk of illnesses, deaths, increasing obesity among both children and adults, low levels of physical activity, poor environmental hygiene and high cost of ill health to individuals, families, communities and the nation as a whole

3. Welcome the introduction of the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Program as a holistic approach to promoting health, strengthening immunity and an important means of addressing the high burden of communicable and non communicable diseases and improving mental health in the country

4. Recognize that the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Program is not new to the Ghanaian culture as our forebears have practiced the Regenerative   health lifestyle before

5. Commend the Minister for Health for his vision in introducing the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Program, for piloting it in 10 districts, for introducing the change agents program, for introducing the standard Regen messages, and for organizing this planning and review meeting.

6. Acknowledge the changing traditional structure of our society and the difficulty in unlearning and re-engineering learnt habits as major challenges to the adoption of healthy lifestyles recommended by the Regenerative health and nutrition program

7. Note the lack of knowledge in the general population on healthy lifestyle choices and the importance of information and communication on Regenerative health and nutrition as well as the need for social support systems in the adoption of healthy lifestyles

8. Support the national objective of scaling up the Regenerative Health and Nutrition program to at least 50% of districts by the end of the year, emphasizing communication and capacity building

9. Request the Ministry of Health to:

• Advocate for the development of a national policy on cultivation of organically grown foods including vegetables and fruit and the production of Regenerative health foods and crops at reasonable cost
• Advocate for the introduction of health education and nutrition as examinable subjects in school curriculum
• Advocate for increasing access to potable water
• Scale up in consultation with relevant stakeholders including establishing strategic partnerships with community radio stations, the program of mass communication of the Regenerative health message at the national and district level including packaging the Regen message into local languages and the production of jingles