SEND-Ghana engages stakeholders on immunization financing

By Rashid Mbugri, GNA

Yendi (N/R), Aug. 29, GNA – The Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND-Ghana) has held a day's budget consultative forum on immunization with stakeholders in the Saboba and Tatale districts in the Northern Region.

The forum, held in Yendi, was aimed at eliciting the views, ideas, concerns and recommendations of the stakeholders on the immunization priorities for the 2020 budget and use them to develop a "Citizens Alternative Budget" on immunization financing.

This forms part of SEND-Ghana's "Immunization Advocacy Initiative" being held for selected regions and districts with the objective to lobby government and its partners to increase domestic financing on immunization.

The stakeholders’ engagement was also in response to the Ministry of Finance’s call for citizens input into the 2020 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.

The "Citizens Alternative Budget" would be used to influence the budget preparation process with concrete priorities and evidence that justified such inputs.

The participants at the forum included representatives from CSOs, District Health Directors and traditional authorities from both districts and representatives from the Northern Regional Health Directorate and the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI).

Mrs Amina Seidu, the EPI Coordinator at the Northern Regional Health Directorate, in a presentation made on her behalf, said the region has achieved its immunization targets for a number of years, however, that some districts, especially the Saboba District often failed to meet its targets for immunization.

She said the failure to meet these targets were due to lack of logistics such as means of transport, challenges with population statistics among others.

The participants called on government to adequately resource the Ghana Health Service to effectively educate citizens on the need to be immunized to help reduce issues such as malnutrition and infant mortality.

They called on government to allocate resources to employ more health staff, especially to rural communities and also make available incentive packages to encourage them to move to those areas.

The participants also called for the provision of more logistics such as motorbikes to aid the movement of health workers in remote areas as well as ensure the extension of electricity supply to health centres in rural communities.

Mr Mumuni Mohammed, the Northern Regional Programmes Manager of SEND-Ghana, commended the participants for their efforts and contributions and assured them that some of the issues and recommendations raised at the meeting would be included in the "Citizens Alternative Budget" for consideration.

GNA

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