Ghana’s wellness sector is undergoing significant transformation. Across the country, increasing attention to preventive health, holistic wellbeing, aesthetic care, fitness, and reproductive health has stimulated the rapid growth of a diverse wellness ecosystem. This evolving landscape includes herbal medicine practitioners, cosmetic and aesthetic service providers, reproductive health specialists, digital wellness influencers, fitness professionals, and commercial manufacturers of wellness products.
The conference heard contributions from a wide range of regulatory stakeholders, including the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority, Traditional Medicine Practice Council, and the National Media Commission. It also featured presentations from professionals across Ghana’s cosmetics and fitness industry, fertility and reproductive health sectors, and traditional medicine practitioners.
Alongside policymakers, practitioners and academic colleagues based in Ghana, “Governing Wellness in Ghana” was attended by BDD project members based at King’s College London, the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, Lancaster University, Loughborough University and the University Cheik Anta Diop.
The conference addressed the growing complexity of Ghana’s expanding and increasingly digitally mediated wellness spaces. From this cross-sectoral approach, uniting academic work with policymaking and practitioners, discussions emphasised the need for a responsive and trust-centred approach to regulation. Participants discussed how the protection of public health must account for people’s often-overlapping engagement with biomedical healthcare and use of traditional medicine practices.