Ghana needs 5 billion GHC to solve adolescent reproductive health problems

General News on Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-05-29

Ghana needs about five billion cedis (the equivalent of $ 1 billion) to undertake advocacy programs to address the reproductive health challenges of adolescents during next five years.

This amount would be used to undertake education and awareness programs on badual and reproductive health, to purchase family planning products for distribution to adolescents, for mental health education and for human resource fees that would apply adolescent health strategies on the ground.

Currently, the average teenage pregnancy rate is 14.2% in the Greater Accra region and more than 20% in the rest of the regions.

Godfred Bonnah-Nkansah, head of advocacy and youth coordination for Marie Stopes Ghana, said this during an interview with Ghana's news agency in Accra on Tuesday. a dissemination workshop on financing reproductive health in adolescents in Ghana.

He called for increased investment in adolescent reproductive health, noting that countries that have increased funding for adolescent health education campaigns have reaped considerable dividends.

He added that, although the Government had badumed the costs of human resources and infrastructure, much remained to be done to provide funds to carry out the various activities outlined in the health campaign strategy. teens.

Bonnah-Nkwansah said the government committed only 7.2 percent of the national budget to advocate for adolescent health in 2017, compared with 20 percent in Rwanda, which helped reduce it. its infant and maternal mortality rates and early pregnancies.

The 12 participants at the end of the National Summit on Reproductive Reproductive Young People, in a 12-point communiqué, emphasized the need to provide national institutions with sufficient resources to carry out public advocacy for reproductive health. teenagers.

He also called for the integration of public health issues into the national health insurance scheme, the establishment of adolescent reproductive health clubs in schools and the exploration of technologies for Educate adolescents on these issues.

Ms. Leticia Adalaide Appiah, Executive Director of the National Population Council, recalled in her welcome speech the need to increase investment in reproductive health advocacy for adolescents to minimize early pregnancy. in Ghana.

Anne Coolen, director of Marie Stopes International in the country, lamented the lack of financial support for advocacy for badual and reproductive health and stressed the need for all stakeholders to support a worthy cause for a better future.

Mr. Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo, Member of Parliament for Wa Central and Member of Parliament's Population Caucus, pledged, on behalf of the caucus, to support the awareness campaign and to advocate for an increase. funds allocated to adolescent reproductive health programs.

The workshop was organized by the National Population Council, in collaboration with Marie Stopes International (Ghana), which attracted directors from ministries, departments and agencies, civil society Students and media.

Marie Stopes International is an international organization established in 1976 that provides contraceptive and abortion services and information on reproductive health to women around the world.

The organization has approximately 11,000 team members working in 37 countries around the world and has helped women deliver by choice, not by chance.

It has touched the lives of more than 120 million women and girls around the world in the last 40 years.