Mrs Dela Sowah, the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, on Wednesday said countries with the lowest economic indicators report the highest rate of malnutrition, especially in children.

She said children typically represents the economic future of every country and that addressing the malnutrition problems therefore will eventually end up in promoting economic growth and decrease poverty rate.

Mrs Sowah made the remarks at the launch of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP 1000) project in Tamale, in the Northern Region on Wednesday.

The project, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), will be implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The project is a component of the LEAP Programme, which will run for three years and is to serve and benefit pregnant women and children less than 12 months in 10 Municipals and Districts in the Northern and Upper East Region.

She said the number of children suffering from chronic under nutrition in Ghana remains critical and that statistics from the Statistical Service of Ghana reveals that stunting affects more than one in four, 27.7 per cent of Ghanaian children under five years.

Mrs Sowah said inspite of the gains chalked through social protection programmes in Ghana, malnutrition seems to be a major drawback to achieving the expected targets.

She said deficiencies during childhood in many years cannot be adequately compensated for in later life and that this deficiencies cause irreversible physical and cognitive defects that impacts on child's ability to contribute productively to the economy as an adult.

Mrs Sowah noted that the reversal of the this trend, is the efforts of the Gender Ministry with support from its partners USAID and UNICEF, which has developed an expanded components of the LEAP programme to LEAP 1000 to include pregnant women and children under 12 months.

Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna in his welcome address said, according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011, the Northern Region has the highest rate of under nutrition which is 37.4 per cent of children are stunted whiles 24.2 per cent are underweight.

He said under nutrition have enormous consequences for morbidity mortality and development of children, and that, the trend of the nutrition indicator is the outcome of many factors and is affected by policies/strategies and activities of numerous sectors, including heath, water, sanitation and agriculture.

Alhaji Limuna said there are many non-Governmental Organizations in the region working in the area of health and nutrition but this impacts has not been seen that much, and that, one of the problems is that there are no institutions that coordinates the implementation of nutrition interventions.

He appealed to Municipal and District Chief Executives whose areas are benefiting from the programme to allow the system to work without interfering in the beneficiary selection criteria.

Mr Jim Beaver, the Mission Director of USAID said extreme poverty refers to earning less than $1.25 per day which is equivalent to GH¢4.00 and that people living in extreme poverty are forced to make impossible choices daily between food, medicine, housing and education.

He said USAID is committed to eradicating extreme poverty in Ghana, which is a goal within the reach and power of the agency, and that, the agency needs to constantly innovate and open to new models of development that promotes local ownership and demand accountability.

Mr Beaver added that, the USAID is pleased to support the efforts of the Government of Ghana in answering the moral imperative, which is, ending extreme poverty within a generation.