The 2013 Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition is identified and advocated for
improved institutional and human capacity in nutrition towards scaling up nutrition
(SUN) in countries with high stunting rates. Of the fifty-four countries with high burden
of child undernutrition who have committed to the SUN movement, thirty-six are in
Africa. In the present paper, the academic platform of the SUN movement in Ghana presents
an overview of nutrition pre-service capacity in West Africa with a focus on Ghana.
The present paper is based on the findings of a sub-region-wide assessment of degree programmes
in nutrition in West Africa, plus another report on pre-service nutrition capacity
in diploma awarding nursing and nutrition programmes in Ghana. Although there is inadequate
evidence on pre-service nutrition training in the sub-region, the two reports provide
useful evidence for action, including inadequate number and distribution of pre-service nutrition
training programmes, low nutrition graduate output, poor quality of the programme
curriculum and instruction, and sub-optimal capital investment. The present paper calls for
urgent action to improve pre-service nutrition capacity building as a critical step towards
SUN in West Africa.