Gov't Loses $21.1m Donor Funding For HIV, TB And Malaria

Ghana earlier this year, has lost a sum of $21.1 million from two major donors intended to support health initiatives to ending HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

This was due to the government's inability to meet its co-financing agreements with the donors, which are the Global Fund and the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Speaking at a national dialogue on enhancing Ghana's health programs in Accra on Tuesday, Madam Elsie Ayeh, Ashanti Regional Representative of the Non-State Actors Ghana (NSA) said there was an urgent need for Ghana to adhere to co-financing obligations towards external support.

“PEPFAR abrogated its Memorandum of Understanding with the government to a tune of 19.5 million USD while the Global Fund made a recovery of 1.6 million from its 2018-2020 country envelope for Ghana,” she said.

The country had since 2002 received a cumulative disbursement of USD 804 million from the Global Fund, with inadequate domestic resources for health interventions.

The forum, organised by the NSA provided an avenue for stakeholders in the health sector to discuss how to strengthen national interventions on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

It discussed how Ghana could keep its side of bargains of funding provided for health programming by donors to ensure that donor-funded programmes meet the health needs of the people.

Madam Ayeh stated that Ghana was not on track to meet targets for ending HIV and TB infections as new infections increase with the frequent shortage of HIV and TB commodities due to lack of funds while Ghana keeps returning money to the global fund.