Ghana lost over $21m donor funding due to low commitments – NSA
Ghana lost a sum of $21.1 million earlier this year from two major donors intended to support health initiatives to end HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
This was due to government’s inability to meet its co-financing agreements with the donors, which are the Global Fund and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Speaking at a national dialogue on enhancing Ghana’s health programs in Accra on Tuesday, Madam Elsie Ayeh, Ashanti Regional Representative of the Non-State Actors Ghana (NSA) said there is an urgent need for Ghana to adhere to co-financing obligations towards external support.
“PEPFAR abrogated its Memorandum of Understanding with the government to a tune of $19.5 million while the Global Fund made a recovery of $1.6 million from its 2018-2020 country envelope for Ghana,” she said.
The country, had since 2002 received a cumulative disbursement of $804 million from the Global Fund, with inadequate domestic resources for health interventions.
The forum, organised by the NSA provided an avenue for stakeholders in the health sector to deliberate on best ways strengthen national response and interventions to treating HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
It discussed how Ghana could keep its side of bargains of funding provided for health programming by donors to ensure that donor funded programmes meet the health needs of the people.
Madam Ayeh stated that Ghana was not on track to meeting targets for ending HIV and TB infections as new infections increase with frequent shortage of HIV and TB commodities due to lack of funds while Ghana keeps returning money to the Global Fund.
She opined that sustained political commitment is needed to follow through on changes in behaviour towards meeting co-financing agreements that have the impact to make difference.
Dr. Ebenezer Odame, Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) at the Ministry of Health said Ghana needs to up her game to achieve sustainable health financing and heath delivery as a country, if she must meet the global action plan
Source: GNA