12,000 Poor Ghanaians Are Demanding Increment In Budgetary Allocation To Health Programmes—Send Ghana Reveals

12,000 poor Ghanaians are urging government to increase budgetary allocation to the seven existing health programmes of the Ministry of Health. This was contained in press release issued by SEND GHANA, Ghana News Agency and Penplusbyte.

According to SEND GHANA, People For Health is a five-year USAID funded project, seeking to reduce inequities in the delivery of health services through the promotion of good governance practices in health, planning, monitoring and evaluation systems at the district, regional and national levels.

The release explains that, the project aims to achieve this objective by strengthening the technical and leadership capacity of Civil Society Organizations to advocate for citizens to demand and participate in health service delivery.

Below is the full release issued by SEND GHANA, Ghana News Agency and Penplusbyte:

THE PEOPLE FOR HEALTH PROJECT LAUNCHES A REPORT HIGHLIGHTING THE INADEQUACY OF FUNDING FOR HIV AND AIDS PROGRAMMES IN GHANA

Accra, Ghana— The People For Health Project will be launching an appraisal report on the 0.5 percent District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) for HIV programming on17th August 2017in Accra.

The yet-to-be-launched Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation research reportassessed the 0.5 percent of DACF allocation to assemblies for HIV programing in 15 districts between 2014 and 2016 and has revealed disturbing findings.For example, the report showed that even though over 250,000 persons are living with HIV in Ghana, accounting for over 9000 deaths every year, HIV programming is presently not a top priority of government.

On the same day, a dashboard developed to function as an avenueof reporting cases of stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (particularly key populations)in the health sector will be launched. The dashboard will alsoserveas a platform for citizens and government stakeholders to interface on how to improve upon issues relating to the following: HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, family planning, reproductive health, WASH and nutrition.

In addition, the “Making the Budget Work for Health Rights in Ghana” report will be inaugurated. The document contains summary of inputs and recommendations made into the 2018 National Budgetby over 12000 poor Ghanaians who are members of the District Citizen’s Monitoring Committee. These citizens are demanding increment in budgetary allocation to seven existing health programmes of the Ministry of Health.

The event presents an opportunity for stakeholders to deliberate on the findings of the report, securecommitments from duty bearers as well as educate the public on how to use and take advantage of the platform to reduce inequities in the health service delivery in Ghana.

About the People For Health Project
People For Health is a five-year USAID funded project, seeking to reduce inequities in the delivery of health services through the promotion of good governance practices in health, planning, monitoring and evaluation systems at the district, regional and national levels.

The project aims to achieve this objective by strengthening the technical and leadership capacity of Civil Society Organizations to advocate for citizens to demand and participate in health service delivery. The People For Health project is being implemented by SEND GHANA, Ghana News Agency and Penplusbyte.