SEND Ghana urges gov’t to deliberately increase allocation of funds for immunisation; prepare for sell-financing

Programme Officer at SEND-GHANA, Mrs. Harriet Nuamah-Agyeman

Advocacy group, SEND Ghana has launched a report of the findings of its Immunisation Credibility Monitoring.

The findings presented at a National Stakeholder Dialogue on Friday, January 27, in Accra among other things exposed the need for government to increase funding for immunisation in the country to ensure children are protected.

Despite the many challenges uncovered in the Immunisation Credibility Monitoring, SEND Ghana also found that over the years, the government has displayed commitment to see to it that children are given required immunisations at various stages.

The Immunisation Credibility Monitoring which covered five districts including Shai Osudoku, Asuogyaman, Ho, Tatale/Sanguli, and Kasena Nankana Municipal Assembly found that financial constraints are among the challenges affecting immunisation across the various districts in the country.

This is because a paltry 1% to 4% of the health budgets of the districts are allocated to cater for immunisation.

After learning from the districts that these allocations are not enough, the SEND Ghana report has recommended that government should make a deliberate effort to increase funds for health in the national budget for it to trickle down to the budget of the districts.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the launch of its report on Immunisation Credibility Monitoring, Mrs. Harriet Nuamah-Agyeman, Programme Officer at SEND-GHANA argued that if government doesn’t make enough funds available for immunisation, it cannot expect the health staff to perform magic to achieve the target it has given to them.

“We have made gains as a country. We want to either maintain or move ahead and so whatever it takes for us to cover every child because no child should be left behind. For us to move ahead and not leave any child behind we need the resources.

“If government is contributing just half of what is required then we encourage government to increase what it gives and whatever is allocated government should also release the funds and ensure that the staff is using it for the intended purposes and they are attaining the results,” Mrs. Harriet Nuamah-Agyeman shared.

In Ghana, there are 13 different vaccines for children administered through annual immunisation exercises to protect them from various diseases.

From the findings of the monitoring by SEND Ghana, the larger part of the funding for the annual immunisation exercises is from donors and international partners.

During her interview, Mrs. Harriet Nuamah-Agyeman underscored the need for government to start preparing for self-financing.

“Our donors are funding immunisation more than our government and we think that at this stage in the life of our country, we should begin to work hard towards taking full responsibility for immunisation of our children because in some few years to come we will exit the GAVI plan and it means that we have to fund immunisation 100% from our internal coffers.

“The earlier we do this the better it will be for our children and to maintain the gains that we have made in terms of immunization,” she said.

The SEND Ghana programmes officer added, “At the district level once it is budgeted for the likelihood of having funds released for immunisation is high but as we saw from the presentation these are very low amounts between 1 and 4% of the health budget of the district is given to immunisation and we are not saying it’s low, the districts themselves have said that it’s inadequate unable to help them to undertake their immunisation activities as they wish to. There are gaps, we are not reaching every child. We need to reach them for them to have the rest [of the vaccines] for their protection.”

On his part, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Ghana, Mr. Charles Dzradosi commended SEND Ghana for the job done.

Mr. Charles Dradosi

In his view, the findings make it clear that stakeholders must work together to make good use of the resources available every year for immunisation efficiently.

He said it is refreshing that the government has shown in the past and continues to display commitment towards immunisation in the country.

Admitting that more needs to be done, Charles Dzradosi called on SEND Ghana and all other advocacy groups to take up the matter and do more advocacy for government to commit more funds to immunisation exercises every year.

At the end of the dialogue, it was recommended that immunisation financing must be included in the core district indicators to compel district assemblies to prioritise immunization needs at the district level.

There was also a call for a dedicated fund to be established to support immunisation activities and managed by a committee to ensure the effective utilisation of funds.