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The Clean Air Fund has held a strategy consultation workshop with stakeholders as part of the Breathe Cities Initiative, a strategy to accelerate progress, break down barriers to action, and ensure communities around the world have access to clean air.

The workshop was aimed at meeting up with health directors, transport directors, health promotion officers, and civil society organizations to discuss strategies to help curb air pollution in Accra. During the workshop in Accra, the Municipal Director of Health for Ayawaso West Municipality, Dr. Louisa Ademki Matey, emphasized that workers in the public health sector should make sure to create more awareness of the health impact of air pollution since their interest is on prevention.

“Public health sector workers interest is prevention, so we have to create more awareness about dust, open burning, and other sources of air pollution. We will let them know that air pollution breeds heart and lung problems, which reduce the lifespan of people, and respiratory sickness patients who attend the hospital will also be educated more on what to do to prevent air pollution.”

The Transport Officer at Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly, Ramzey Nana Kwame Addison, also mentioned some measures that will be put in place to reduce air pollution in Accra, like having a sensitization program with the transport unions and educating them on servicing their vehicles. He added up by saying that about 40% of air pollution in the environment is from fumes from public transport.

"First of all, we will have a sensitization program with transport unions; most of them do not know the consequences of polluting the air with the emissions from their cars, so we will sensitize them, and during the engagement, we will encourage them to service their vehicles”.

The Breathe Cities Portfolio Manager, Dr. Elvis Kyere Gyeabour, finally acknowledged the presence of various stakeholders at the workshop because, according to him, the stakeholders got to know and understood that upper respiratory tract infection has been on the rise as a result of the polluted air that is breathed in.

He added that, “the workshop has aided in the introduction of new measures that can greatly help reduce air pollution,” he emphasized.

The Breathe Cities Initiative is an initiative brought up by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Clean Air Fund, and C40 to help curb air pollution in the country, especially in Accra, and reduce airborne diseases.

The project is expected to end in 2026 and by 2026; it is expected to achieve the goal of reducing polluted air in Accra.