Ghana has been allocated $234 million by the Global Fund (GF) to fight against Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/ AIDS.
The grant, spanning 2023-2025 is expected to accelerate efforts at reducing prevalence of the three diseases as well as build a resilient health system to control epidemics.
In view of that, the Country Coordinating Mechanism, (CCM), which manages Ghana’s GF funds, yesterday launched a countrywide stakeholder dialogue to solicit inputs towards a final application to access the funds by January 2024.
The Executive Secretary of CCM-Ghana, Samuel Hackman, in a remark said Ghana’s allocation was based on disease burden levels and current economic status.
He said of the total amount, $120 million would go into malaria interventions, $95 million into HIV/AIDS and $18.2 million to fight TB.
“Recent unprecedented health challenges had a devastating impact on the progress made but together, we can get back on track to end the three diseases by 2030, to build resilient and sustainable systems for health and strengthen pandemic preparedness, to make the world healthier and more equitable,” he noted.
According to the Executive Secretary, the idea to embark on a dialogue across all 16 regions of Ghana to take views from the general public was to ensure the final funding request presented, reflects real needs of the populace to advance quality healthcare.
“We must put people and communities at the centre of all our work. We must put greater focus on equity, sustainability, efficiency, program quality and innovation.
We must reduce new infections across the three diseases, addressing structural barriers and leveraging innovations in prevention tools and approaches,” he stated.
The Vice Chairperson of the CCM, Mr Ernest Ortsin, who launched the dialogue, indicated that the new allocation by the GF was based on Ghana’s renewed performance on some health indicators.
“In the last funding round, we saw a drop in the amount allocated to Ghana from the previous amount but this one has shot up a little so we want to ensure that we utilise the funds efficiently and improve health outcomes at the last mile,” he said.
“We must work to ensure that we reduce new infections and tackle human rights and gender-related barriers for lasting impact,” he added.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Francis Kasolo, in a speech read on his behalf said while Ghana had made significant strides in indicators across the three diseases, efforts must be made to close prevailing gaps.
“We need to improve efforts to find and place on treatment over 100,000 additional Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV) to reach epidemic controls, we need to find missing tuberculosis cases and accelerate efforts towards malaria elimination,” he said.
Dr Kasolo pledged WHO and its partner’s commitment to support a successful country dialogue and grant application.
The Executive Director of Hope for Future Generations and a Member of Developing NGO Country Delegation to the Global Fund Board, By Cecilia Lodonu-Senoo, urged Civil Society organisations to work together to contribute to an effective programming and utilisation of the global fund.
Founded in 2002, the GF, is an independent, multilateral financing entity designed to raise significant resources and accelerate efforts to end HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria epidemics.
The fund has so far supported Ghana’s fight against the three diseases with over $1 billion while helping to strengthen health systems across 155 countries.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH