The Ghana Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Health (GCNH), has implored government to without delay make adequate investments to help translate commitment on child health into actions.
The coalition said it was imperative for government to develop a sustainable plan for immunisation to secure the fundamental rights of children.
“As Ghana gears up to graduate from the support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, because of its middle income status, it is necessary that President John Dramani Mahama who is the president of GAVI, focuses on making huge investments in immunisation to save lives in Ghana”, it said.
GAVI the Vaccine Alliance, is a public-private global health partnership committed to increasing access to immunisation in poor or developing countries.
Addressing Journalists at a news conference in Accra on Monday, Mr.Gaberiel Gbiel Benarkuu, national chairman of the GCNH, said Ghana would soon have to invest more in immunisation since it would no longer be supported by GAVI.
He said the government must take a critical look at the nation’s immunisation system, since most children in the remote communities and urban slums did not have access to immunisation last year.
Mr. Benarkuu, however, attributed the challenge of inequalities in child survival interventions to the fact that health workers and volunteers continued to struggle for resources in their quest to provide children with life saving vaccines.
GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, requires an additional 7.5 dollars to save six million lives by helping to immunise 300 million children between 2016 and 2020 in 73 countries.
The coalition further called for increased donor investments in immunisation programmes through GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance to increase access to new and underused vaccines in poor and middle income countries including Ghana.
GAVI as part of efforts to facilitate access to immunisation services in hard to reach communities, contributed about 90 million dollars to Ghana’s immunization system over the past 15 years.
It also asked GAVI to invest in strengthening health systems, by making sure that immunisation contributes to building comprehensive health systems that could deal with all health problems.
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