Quis autem velum iure reprehe nderit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit nulla or narjusto laoreet onse ctetur adipisci.
Quis autem velum iure reprehe nderit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit nulla or narjusto laoreet onse ctetur adipisci.
HFFG leads CSO Immunization Advocacy
In the face of dwindling donor support in the health sector. The Government of Ghana has been urged to increase domestic funding to immunization activities in Ghana.
This call was made at a Civil Society Round-table discussion held in Accra as part of the Immunization Advocacy Initiative (IAI), a three-year project which aims to advocate for government to increase domestic financing for immunization.
The Immunization Advocacy Initiative is funded by the African Population Health Research Center (APHRC). It is being implemented by Civil Society Organizations namely: SEND Ghana and a Hope for Future Generation consortium made up of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association, Socio-Serve and the West African AIDS Foundation. The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, is also a member of the network.
Participants at the roundtable discussion unanimously agreed that despite competing national interests, immunization is a poverty reduction strategy that decreases the magnitude of vaccine-preventable diseases and therefore the need for government to invest greatly into it to sustain the gains made over the years.
The Executive Director of Hope for Future Generations, Mrs Cecilia Senoo noted that most of the interventions within the health sector including immunization are sponsored by external donors, putting the lives of many children at risk should donors continue to pullout.
She indicated that civil society organizations have a role to play in advocating for the Government of Ghana to commit to funding immunization interventions and also meet its co-financing agreements with international bodies like GAVI, a public–private global health partner committed to increasing access to immunization globally.
In a presentation on immunization financing in Ghana, Mr Ebow Dadzie, a Deputy Programme Manager at the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) revealed that Ghana is one of only three countries that failed to meet its co- financing commitments with GAVI in 2018.
He advocated for strengthened partnership for immunization coverage and innovative ways of financing health services.
For her part, the Programs and Advocacy Manager for the Immunization Advocacy Initiative, Gladys Damalin, revealed that the cost of immunization in Ghana is rising without a corresponding increment in government funding.
“The donor influence in immunization activities in Ghana has been so immense. The gains that the Government of Ghana has made in immunization coverage may not be sustainable if we continue to rely on donors to fund immunization in Ghana,” she said.
She noted that the Immunization Advocacy Initiative aims to ensure that the proportion of the budget allocation to immunization disbursed and spent in each financial year increases year on year by the Government of Ghana.
She disclosed that the objective of the CSO round-table discussions at the national and regional levels is to introduce to stakeholders the IAI’s advocacy agenda and their support solicited on domestic financing for immunization.