Health experts attend workshop in Accra...Daily Graphic..Thurs..June 12/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho & Hagar Korantemaa

OVER 120 health experts from West and Central Africa are in the country to share experiences and adopt best practices in the sustainable adoption of family planning, reproductive health and child survival policies and approaches.
The health experts, who are participating in a three-day workshop in Accra organised by Action for West Africa Region-Reproductive Health (AWARE-RH), will discuss achievements and challenges after implementing a five-year project which ends in July.
The five-year project, which covered 21 countries, supports activities in the areas of family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, malaria and HIV/AIDS and also shares best practices in reproductive health in the region.
At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to come up with recommendations that will be made available to their respective governments for consideration.
The Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd), who opened the workshop, observed that the current challenge facing policy makers in developing countries was how to apply the available knowledge effectively and efficiently.
He said the magnitude and persistently high rates of maternal mortality, infant and child mortality and deaths from HIV/AIDS on the continent raised several fundamental issues which policy makers would need to confront.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, AWARE-RH, Dr Alex Nazzar, said Ghana and other participating countries were doing well on the issue of reproductive health.
He said Ghana currently had in place a system known as the Reproductive Health Commodity Security by which it was able to forecast the health needs of people and thereby make drugs available to potential patients.
The Vice-President of Programmes for EngenderHealth, Dr Isaiah Ndong, said the purpose of the project was to support the various regions with technical assistance to enable them to work with their governments and adopt best practices.
He added that the project also strengthened selected institutions, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the regions, to provide technical assistance through training.
According to Dr Ndong, although the healthcare situation in the region was not the best, the project exceeded its expectations by achieving its target in all participating countries and called on governments to continue working with other development partners to ensure its sustainability.