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3 agencies to invest over $158m in primary healthcare

 Three agencies have com­mitted to investing more than $158m to improve Ghana’s primary healthcare.

They are the United States Agency for International Devel­opment (USAID), which plan to invest up to US$135million through 2027, subject to ap­proval, the Korea International Corporation Agency (KOICA), estimated approximately US$23 million, while Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) is expected to provide technical support.

The three international organi­sations yesterday convened an in­augural meeting with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Accra, to advance agreement between them and the government in or­der to improve Ghana’s primary healthcare.

This follows a signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in July 2023, by the Unit­ed States Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, the Japanese Ambassador, Mochizuki Hisa­nobu, and the Korea’s Ambas­sador, Jung-Taek Lim, to as well strengthen Ghana’s global health security against future pandemic threat.

Speaking at the meeting, the KOICA country Director, Mr Dong Hyun Lee, said the tripar­tite partnership support three key areas, which were primary healthcare, health governance at the sub-national level and global security.

He said the partnership would further support and build on Ghana’s primary healthcare system at the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), and health centres to strengthen the quality of health services.

“This meeting underscores our collective dedication to enhanc­ing the primary healthcare system in the Northern Region. KOICA, JICA and USAID each bring unique strengths to this partner­ship.

It will enable us leverage our combined efforts in supporting key health priorities, and we are committed to this partner­ship with the aim of improving quality healthcare delivery in the country,” Mr Lee said.

The Chief Representative of JICA, Ms Momoko Suzuki, said the partnership offered an opportunity for all development partners to learn from this novel approach of having different actors, working in the same tech­nical area.

He added that the partner­ship would mitigate all forms of duplications, and ensures synergy of interventions towards opti­mising health outcomes in the designated regions.

The USAID Mission Director, Ms Kimberly Rosen, added that the United States through US­AID was pleased to partner the government, JICA and KOICA to build a more resilient health system.

The Director of Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kofi Issah, said the government welcomes the efforts of the developing partners to help address challenges in the country’s health delivery.

 BY BERNARD BENGHAN

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