Ghana Annual Report 2019
The WHO country office for Ghana, began the year 2019 with a 4-day staff retreat at the Busua Beach Resort in the Western Region from 04 to 08 March 2019. The theme for the retreat was ‘Impacting the Health and Lives of the people of Ghana through the Triple Billion Goal”. The staff outlined priorities and strategies to strengthen WHO’s contribution to the national health agenda during the year. Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service and other allied health institutions and stakeholders, the WHO country office, provided support aimed at achieving its
mission which is attaining the highest level of health by the people in the country though its six operational areas which are (i) Communicable Diseases (ii) Non-Communicable Diseases, (iii) Promoting Health through the Life Course (iv), Health Systems, (v) Preparedness, Surveillance and Response (vi) Corporate services and enabling functions.
In addition to the financial support, technical assistance was also provided to build capacity and strengthen health governance structures at all levels.
The following are some of the achievements from the support provided:
• Introduction of RTS, S/AS01E malaria vaccine, the world’s first malaria vaccine, into routine immunization through the WHO-coordinated Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP)
• Conduct of response vaccination campaigns to Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus(cVDPV) Type 2 using monovalent oral polio vaccine type 2 (mOPV2) in Bono, Greater Accra, Northern, North East, Oti, Savanna and Upper East regions.
• Commemoration of Child Health Promotion Week and Africa Vaccination Week to promote preventive child survival interventions like Immunization, Vitamin A Supplementation, Growth monitoring, birth registration and ITN use
• Development of a 5-year comprehensive Multi-Year Plan (cMYP) for Immunizations in Ghana for the period 2020-2024
• Conduct of a comprehensive Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) program review to inform policy and programmatic strategic plans
• Adaptation of the WHO training package on growth assessment and infant and young child feeding counselling for Ghana specific training manual to that will be used for strengthening skills of health workers.
• Development of the National Multisectoral NCDs Policy and Strategy in collaboration with the World Bank and other Health Partners
• Launch of the Quality Rights in Mental Health in Ghana, which is an e-training programme with online coaching on mental health, human rights and recovery to promote attitudes and practices that respect dignity and rights, and which promote holistic, person-centered and recovery-oriented care and support.
• Commemoration of key health-days such as World Health Day, World No Tobacco Day, World diabetes day to create more awareness on health living and life style.
• Development of case studies for the chemical events/ environmental surveillance curriculum for the Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training (GFELT) program at the University of Ghana School of Public Health (UGSPH) in collaboration with NIPH
• Support for meningitis preparedness with the provision of diagnostic laboratory logistics and support for strengthening surveillance and clinical diagnosis using case definition in Upper West Region.
