The French embassy in Ghana has launched two projects targeted at preventing secondary cervical cancer among women living with HIV and strengthening the evaluation of quality of health services in Ghana to combat HIV, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
The projects, funded by L’initiative will be led by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research respectively.
L’initiative is a French facility that compliments the global fund’s work by providing technical assistance and support for innovation to the global fund recipient countries, to improve the effectiveness of grants and strengthen the health impacts of the programmes funded.
It also aims to respond to requests for technical expertise from French-speaking countries, to support them in designing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and measuring the impact of grants allocated by the global fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Speaking at the launch held on Wednesday at the French Embassy in Cantonment, Accra, Director General of the GHS Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye revealed that Ghana started partnership with the global fund more than two decades ago, becoming the first country to receive a grant.
As a key partner for the West African Region, Ghana, he said, had been managing over €1billion since then , adding that his outift and the Ministry of Health were proud to be principal recipients of HIV, TB and malaria disease grants.
He stated that the community scorecard initiative of the GHS had also shown promising results in improving the delivery of healthcare services in the rural areas.
Implemented in 2018, the initiative, Dr Aboagye said, aimed at strengthening community participation in healthcare and improving accountability in service delivery.
He explained that through the implementation of the scorecard system, communities have been actively involved in monitoring and evaluating the quality and availability of healthcare services in their areas, leading to an increase in understanding of health issues as well as improved communication between healthcare providers and community members.
Additionally, the Director General explained that the scorecard system had helped identify areas of improvement within the healthcare system, such as the need for more health facilities, improved staffing and training among others.
The Fench Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Jules Armand Aniambossou in a speech read on his behalf said Ghana had received support from the global fund for more than 20 years with significant investments to reduce the impact of HIV, TB and malaria on sufferers of such diseases and also implemented measures to prevent them.
He hoped that the two new projects would trigger further developments of L’initiatives portfolio in Ghana.
France, being the second highest donor to the global fund and the first to the European Union (EU), he said would continue to contribute towards ensuring vulnerable countries receive support to fight and prevent diseases and promote development.
In his remarks, Technical Advisor of Expertise France, an international technical cooperation agency, Mr Eric Fleutelot said despite Ghana making a huge progress against TB, HIV and malaria, there were still challenges which required accelerated response.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
