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The Ghana Health Service has inaugurated a new 16-member Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee for Health Promotion.
The committee, comprising stakeholders from diverse backgrounds of expertise, has been tasked with the responsibility of promoting good health practices amongst the populace and also causing behavioural change.
The committee will also advise on best practices in mobilising resources from the private sector and philanthropists to support the contributions of government and developing partners for sustained health promotion services.
Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye in a sideline interview with the media at the inauguration of the committee said the committee’s role has become crucial as non-communicable diseases increase.
“This is not a new committee. This is a new group but not a new concept. We have always had Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee for Health Promotion basically to bring their rich resources both in terms of capacity to assist us in surmounting these challenges of health promotion and changing our behaviours and making sure that most importantly how do we bring everybody on board…private sector to be able to see how we can all achieve the goals. We are facing a more herculean task now.”
“The emergence and the rapid increase in non-communicable diseases is a major problem. This requires not just resources but also major behaviour change. We know from their diverse background that they can help us in navigating all the challenges so that we can improve the health of this country. We saw how COVID-19 affected every sector of this country and that is the way we also want to ensure that we also tackle it in all society and all groups and that’s why we have this more diverse group helping us to promote health in this country,” he said.
Measurement of committee output
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye indicated that the committee members will have a two-year cycle tenure following which any member may decide to renew their membership after the expiration of their current term adding that the committee’s work will also be assessed.
“Apart from what they themselves will do, we always have an assessment done from GHS…our own annual reports, our own coverages will help us to see whether the change in behaviour is taking place and if so is it creating an impact or are we having the right outcomes. So there are many ways of measuring their performance and over the years through similar groups we have seen improvement in our performance,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee for Health Promotion, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann says the committee will work diligently to deliver on its mandate.
She mentioned that the committee will soon be rolling out a series of activities while coordinating all ongoing efforts aimed at promoting good health.
“Our main purpose is to promote health, and so we have organized ourselves as a committee to be able to do that. We have subcommittees, and then we have all kinds of plans and activities that we will be drawing up to be able to do that. You will see us promoting health; you will see us trying to get the public sector to be interested in what government is doing, it’s a partnership. You will see us trying to encourage people to live a much more healthy life and organizing various groups across the country to do this.”
“Funding is always a challenge. This committee at the moment, our sponsor is USAID, so we have some funding for the work of the committee for the moment. But of course, we need to sustain it. It’s our health as a country, so we will need to prioritize the work of this committee so that we can continue doing that,” she added.
Committee Membership
The members are Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann (Chairperson), Norkor Duah (Managing Director, MullenLowe Accra), Emmanuel Fiagbey (Country Director, Johns Hopkins University, Center for Communication Programs), Kwabena Agyekum (Registrar/CEO, Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana), Mabel Asafo (Deputy Director, Health Promotion Division, Ghana Health Service), Robert Amponsah (Lecturer, University of Professional Studies, Accra ), Dr. Justice Yankson (Vice President, Ghana Medical Association), and Dr. DaCosta Aboagye (Director, Health Promotion Division, Ghana Health Service).
The rest are Samuel Asiedu (Managing Director, AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control), Andrew Ackah (President, Advertising Association of Ghana), Melody Darkey (National Program Coordinator, Women in Law and Development in Africa), Rhoda Ewurabena Appiah (Head of Communications and Public Education, Food and Drugs Authority), Defoe (Representative from Association of Ghana Industries), Maame Afriyie Boachie (Chief Executive Officer, GLICO Healthcare), Jennifer Brock (Director, Haven International) and Nsiah Poku (CEO Kinapharma Limited).
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