The Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) have been urged to take deliberate steps to support and strengthen the private sector to reduce the cost of Family Planning/contraceptive commodities and services in informal settlements.
It follows a recent research conducted by the School of Public Health of the University of Ghana which revealed that only 19.6% of women in informal settlements in Accra are currently using modern contraception.
The research, dubbed “Addressing the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Informal Settlements in Ghana’s Urban Centres” pointed to cost among other factors as fueling the crisis.
The research which was conducted with funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) was to assess the difficulty in accessing basic social and healthcare services including sexual and reproductive health services in informal settlements.
Slum areas in Ghana’s urban cities have been characterized by a lot of challenges ranging from infrastructural deficit to poverty, drug and substance abuse among many others. Access to basic social and healthcare services including sexual and reproductive health services as well as family planning and contraceptive services remains a major challenge in such areas. Per the research, only 19.6% of women in informal settlements in Accra are currently using modern contraception with about 78.4% of women in Accra’s slums who ever used a contraception using an emergency contraceptive pill.
The research which was conducted in four large informal settlements in Accra (Nima, Old Fadama, Agbogbloshie and Chorkor) sampled responses from a total of 1083 sexually active girls/women aged 15-49 years between May 2021 and October 2021.
The respondents cited cost of accessing Family Planning and contraceptive commodities and services as one of the major reasons why they are unable to readily access such services. They also cited lack of time as one of the reasons why they do not use contraceptives as they have little time to go about their usual duties.
Speaking on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, the Principal Investigator for the project, Dr. John Ganle said government of Ghana and donor agencies must increase the supply of free or subsidized FP and contraceptive commodities and services to public health facilities especially in urban slums in Ghana.
He added that the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service must also take deliberate steps to support and strengthen the private sector to reduce the cost of FP/contraceptive commodities and services in informal settlements to benefit from its perceived reputation as provider of quality service without undermining existing public sector structures.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
