News

GLOMEF charges GHS to prioritise SRHR to vulnerable groups

• By EDMOND GYEBI
• February 10, 2019
• 34

Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), human rights media advocacy organisation has called on the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to develop innovative ways of delivering quality health services including safe abortion to marginalised and vulnerable groups in rural areas.

This, according to GLOMEF would help save thousands of vulnerable women, young people and men who lack access to quality healthcare services in sexual and reproductive health. 

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GLOMEF, Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jnr made the call at Afransi in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region during a District Stakeholders Forum.

GLOMEF with support from AmplifyChange is currently implementing a one-year project title: Voice of Change Project in the Gomoa East district.

The objective of the project is to increase engagement among service providers to actively support Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Rights (SRHR) for all populations including the vulnerable and marginalised.

The project will further enhance the capacity of 20 journalists to increase media coverage on SRHR demonstrating accurate and holistic understanding of SRHR topics from a human rights perspective.

Mr Ahenu said the vulnerability of many women is demonstrated by the fact that a quarter of women who wish to avoid pregnancy cannot access contraception, whilst more than two-thirds of women who experience medical complications during pregnancy or delivery do not receive the care they need. 

The CEO noted that access to family planning and contraception is a fundamental dimension of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, as clearly stated in the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (PoA), held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994.

He pointed out ICPD’s consensus framework aimed directly at a goal of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), based on a human rights framework and inclusive of family planning, maternal health, prevention of STIs, and adolescent reproductive health.

However, he said despite international and national policy instruments supportive of sexual and reproductive health services and rights, many Ghanaians, particularly girls and women, are unable to access these services due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to early marriage, low socioeconomic status, low levels of education and literacy, and poor access to healthcare especially in rural areas.

 These factors affect the lives and productivity of women and girls who, in turn, cannot fulfil their rights to education, health, and work due to the lack of information and services that could enable them to delay motherhood and plan their family size, the Health right advocate stressed. 

Mr Ahenu called on government to redouble its effort if it is really committed to increase the CPR amongst unmarried sexually active women from the current modern CPR of 31.7 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020 as stated in Ghana Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan.
 

The Gomoa East District Director of Ghana Health Service, Stephen Tie-Toh was with the view that scaling up Family Planning (FP) services is one of the most cost-effective interventions to prevent maternal, infant, and child deaths in Ghana.

FP interventions contribute to reducing poverty, increasing gender equity, preventing the spread of HIV, reducing unwanted teenage pregnancies, and lowering infant deaths.

The Health Professional said lack of access by adolescent girls to family planning, including contraceptive information, education, and services, is a major factor contributing to unwanted teenage pregnancy and maternal death. 

Mr Tie-Toh said for Ghana to meet its comment of increasing the modern contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) amongst currently married women from the current 22.2 per cent to 29.7 per cent by 2020.

The DCE for Gomoa Central, Benjamin Kojo Otoo, in an address while the government currently contributes to funding for FP commodities, the amount is still inadequate to the current need, and therefore, called for private sector participation.

He commended GLOMEF for the project and pledged his unflinching support to ensure the successful implementation of the project.

Source: www.watchghana.com