Ghana Welcomes Regional, Country-Specific Analysis of State of Health

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, Minister of Health has said the country welcomes the preparation of the regional, country-specific analysis of the state of health, health services and health systems in the African Region.

He believes “We need to go beyond this innovation documentation and start looking at the ranking of health systems in the region for better outcomes.

Mr Agyeman Manu was speaking in support of the WHO Transformative Agenda in Africa: Delivering Results and Impact, as part of the ongoing 68th WHO-AFRO Session of the Regional Committee for Africa meeting in Dakar, Senegal.

He said the overall control effectiveness within the WHO Regional Office for Africa, between August 2015 and September 2017, as evaluated by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (IOS), scoring  77 percent surge from 50 percent it garnered previously resulting from the its responsive strategic operations.

The Minister said, this progress has catalysed a leap of the WHO-AFRO to the third position from the bottom in the five WHO Regions.

However, he said there was the need to further strengthen the internal audit function in the organisation to make it fit for purpose.

In terms of Communication and Partnerships, he welcomed the increasing improvement in the engagements with the media and strategic partnerships with the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa, the Africa Health Forum, and the Harmonisation in Health in Africa as major litmus.

“Ghana believes we need to go beyond delivering for results to mapping out all the delivery chains in the organisation and identifying the weakest links for strengthening.”

“Appropriate actions should be taken against individuals who constitute these weakest links.”

He congratulated the Regional Director for the WHO Africa Region for embarking on such a transformative agenda to better lots of the population.

Mr Agyeman Manu said the agenda of fostering pro-results values, smart technical focus, responsive strategic operations and effective communication and partnerships will enable all 47 Member States on the continent achieve Universal Health coverage.

“We need to build a culture of imagination, innovation, honour and creativity. Ghana believes a culture of honour should be created and respected.”

He said the creation of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme and the Framework for Health Systems Development towards Universal Health Coverage in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Africa Region adopted at the 67th Session of the Regional Committee meeting in August, 2017, in Zimbabwe, was a smart technical focus.

Policy-makers, industry players and multinational-related organisations, the academia and strategic partners are attending the five-day meeting.

Source: GNA