WHO representative lauds Ghana

Pg 36 (Jan. 10/08)

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Ghana, Dr Joaquim Saweka, has said that Ghana is on course with its efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger from the country.
He noted that the overall progress made towards poverty reduction in the country was impressive, saying that “Ghana is doing quite well in that direction”.
Dr Saweka said that was an indication that the country was likely to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which called on countries to “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” by reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and people who suffered from hunger by 2015.
Dr Saweka, who said this in an interview in Accra, however, noted that the country was not likely to achieve goals four and five of the MDGs which call on countries to “Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five” and “Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio”, respectively.
He, therefore, called for a scaling up of initiatives geared towards achieving those goals.
Dr Saweka said it was difficult to determine whether it was the reality on the ground or the tool used by international organisations to measure the country’s infant and maternal mortality rates that accounted for the country’s inability to achieve those goals.
According to the 2006 revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects Report, for the period 2005 to 2010, Ghana’s infant mortality rate is 56.6/1,000 and under-five mortality rate is 89.6. It ranked the country 50th among 195 countries in the world.
However, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook last year ranked the country’s infant mortality rate at 52nd among 221 countries, with a rate of 53.56/1,000. The current world infant mortality rate is 49.4, according to the United Nations, and 43.52, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The maternal mortality rate of the country, according to the WHO, is 540/100,000, while a recent survey in the country put it at 214/100,000.
Dr Saweka was, however, hopeful that if the local survey was a true reflection of what was on the ground, then the country would be able to achieve target five of the set goals.
The under-five mortality rate of the country for the past five years had been stagnating, he said, and noted that there was the need for the initiatives undertaken in the areas of neonatal morbidity, pneumonia, malnutrition and malaria, which were identified as the major causes of under-five mortality in the country, to be improved.