UNICEF, JICA sign 2-year deal to improve maternal, child health services in 80 districts

UNICEF and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have signed a two-year partnership agreement to improve maternal and child health services in 80 districts across the country.

The project primarily seeks to encourage the effective use of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) record book for health workers and parents alike for the overall well-being of newborns as part of efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths.

Beneficiary regions under the project include the Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, North East, Northern, Savannah, Western, Western North and Eastern regions.

At a brief signing ceremony in Accra yesterday which saw the handing over of the approved proposal to the Health Ministry, Country Director for UNICEF, Anne-Claire Dufay noted the susceptibility of children to illnesses within the first 1,000 days of birth.

According to her, gaps in ensuring continuous preventive care for newborns could threaten their survival and development hence the need for effective record keeping facilitating quality care.

“With this project, we plan to scale up efforts to reach 740,000 mothers and children in the selected districts and 3,200 health professionals to benefit from improved continuum of preventive care.

“We seek to reach the most vulnerable children and their families in areas where there is low performance of health and nutrition indicators such as immunisation, iron folic supplementation for women, exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding,” she said.

Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Tsutomu Himenoin in a brief remark disclosed that following the roll out of the MCH book in the country’s healthcare system two years ago, about 1,501,000 books have been printed with 12, 100 distributed across the country.

He said JICA had trained 869 facilitators at the national, regional and district levels on the usage of the book who have in turn trained 990 health workers across the country.

According to Mr Himeno, “Ghana is now the first in Africa to have fully incorporated the MCH record book in its health system. Others have piloted it and then stopped but Ghana is first to fully utilise the book.”

On his part, Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Aboagye disclosed that the introduction of the MCH book had contributed to improved delivery and integration of essential services such as growth monitoring, infant and young child nutrition, malaria prevention, immunization and strengthened continuum of care provision.

The new partnership he believed would expand the scope of the current intervention and sustain gains made in line with the country’s quest to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).

BY ABIGAIL ANNOH