Ghana now risks losing all Global Fund support if the Government further delays in clearing the initial consignment of drugs and other medical essentials stuck at the Tema port.
According to the leadership of the Coalition of CSOs in HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria who have earlier expressed their strong dissatisfaction over the development, the action taken by Global Fund would have dire consequences.
“There are presently more than 250,000 persons living with HIV whose ARVs are paid for by Global Fund. Secondly, this development is also bad news for the country’s health sector because the Global Fund has recently announced its commitment to providing an additional US$100 million for health systems strengthening” said Ernest Ortsin, president -of GHANA HIV AND AIDS NETWORK.
He added that “a second issue which, equally, requires urgent Government attention is Ghana’s GC7 co-financing commitment. It is important to explain that the approach of Global Fund, in its support to countries, is to encourage domestic investments in health systems and also towards the three diseases in order to accelerate progress toward ending them as public health threats by 2030. Consequently, as per the Framework Agreement, Ghana must commit to contributing 15% of the GC7 grant (US$248 million), which translates to about US$45 million, to shore up the support from Global Fund”.
The agreement letter to this effect requires the signatures of the Ministers for Health and Finance and ought to have been submitted in May 2023 at the time the country was submitting the GC7 Funding Request.
However, this letter has not been signed for a year and is now posing a threat to the disbursement of funds to the country.
Given the above, we, the leadership of the CSO Networks whose area of operations mainly focuses on HIV and AIDS, TB, and Malaria, plan to stage a MASS PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION to present a petition to the Presidency and Parliament for immediate action on these two critical issues.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Evelyn Araba Aidoo
