Speaker's Bio
Esther Abena Gyinde
Esther Abena Gyinde is a registered nutritionist with the Allied Health Professions Council, Ghana and also a member of the Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (GAND). Currently, she is the head of the Nutrition unit under the Operations department of the Ghana School Feeding Programme. She is the Senior Programmes officer in charge of Health and Nutrition under the programme. Currently, Esther is the team lead for the Cleancook pilot Project, under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Projects 2 (a World Bank sponsored project). She trains, coordinates and facilitates nutrition workshops, trainings and refresher training for caterers, cooks and other stakeholders on nutrition, food safety, hygiene and portion control, nutrient conservations and other health and nutrition related topics. She supervises the regional and district actors on the implementation of the nutrition component of GSFP through routine nutrition facilitative supervision. This exercise when undertaken ensures nutrition, health and safety standards of the program are adhered to. She also develops checklists for nutritional interventions and develops strategies to address nutritional gaps. Esther with her expertise on nutrition was part of the team that reviewed the Ghana School Feeding operations manual to meet current standards from the year 2019 to 2023 and Guidelines for the Design and Implementation of Homegrown School Feeding Programmes in Africa for the African Union Development Agency – New Partnerships for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) in 2019/2021. She is currently an MPhil. candidate in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. She holds a professional development certificate in Project Management in Global Health from the University of Washington (2022).
Education
Education
- MPhil, Human Nutrition and Dietetics – College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Candidate)
- BSc, Community Nutrition – Department of Community Nutrition, School of Medicine and Health Sciences University for Development Studies (2016)
- Experienced in nutrition education, counselling and managing individuals with disease conditions, malnutrition and the general public health education as an intern and as a national service personnel with the Ghana Health Service at Sunyani Regional Hospital and Seventh Day Adventist Hospital respectively all in the Bono Region – Ghana. (2014-2017).
- Coordinated and trained caterers and cooks to mark the African Day of School Feeding celebration (2019 and 2023).
- Served as the trainer of trainers for the development of districts menus using the School Meals Planner (SMP) of which district stakeholders in eleven (11) regions were trained
- Facilitator at the Nutrition Initiatives Training on school meal planner, food safety, hygiene and the appropriate use of GSFP handy measures (portion control) in the Ashanti region, funded by the African Union Development Agency – NEPAD (AUDA) in collaboration with Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) in which about 2,428 caterers and cooks were trained in (2019).
- Trained and facilitated the training of caterers and cooks in Nutrition Initiatives training in the five Northern regions (Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West) Oti and Volta regions respectively-World Food Programme (WFP), Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and YEDENT in collaboration with Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) in all about 6,750 caterers and head cooks were trained
- Key focal person for stakeholders and development partners in Health and Nutrition for the Ghana School Feeding Programme and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection at large.
- Played a key role during the Ghana-Japan School Lunch project from planning through to implementation to develop Social and Behaviour Change Communication materials and also trained stakeholders in pilot districts across the country in the year 2023-2024.