By: Rachel Kakraba
Some journalists have benefited from a two-day training workshop on building resilient urban health systems. The training which was to sharpen skills of journalists in reporting on urban health issues was also to deepen their interest as well expose them to some challenges in the area.
Through the capacity building workshop journalists expected to effectively communicate and package research evidence and outcomes of CHORUS and disseminate the information to the public, as well as play advocacy role in educating the citizenry and hold policymakers accountable for better health outcomes.
The training was organized by the Community-Led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems, CHORUS, at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana with funding from United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in collaboration with Women in Media and Change, a media advocacy group.
The Community-Led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems, CHORUS, is a six year project spanning 2020 to 2026. It is a multi-country Research Programme Consortium working in two cities in the participating countries which includes Ghana, Nigeria, Nepal and Bangladesh. Under the initiative researchers’ work together with policymakers, health professionals and communities who become a part of the entire research process to ensure end results are responsive to healthcare needs of communities. In Ghana the project is being undertaken in Ashaiman and Madina all in the Greater Accra Region.
A lecturer School of Public Health, University of Ghana and Country Lead, CHORUS, Dr. Genevieve Aryeetey, noted long queues and delays at health facilities are contributing to many people in urban areas to self-medicate. She said CHORUS remains committed to rely on research findings that responds to delivering equitable health care services to urban dwellers.
“Within Ashaiman and Madina we contacted the District Directors who also told us to identify the poorer communities within these districts. So in Ashaiman we were at fitter’s line and Taifa. Then in Madina we were in Madina Zongo and then Social Welfare. These are the four communities we are working with. What we have found is that these two urban communities have similar needs, the major challenge is environmental issues especially in Ashaiman”
“What we found was people will not go to health facility because there are long queues and delays. So people rather prefer to do their own self-medication which we found a lot in both communities using mainly herbal medicines. And all that because of the long queues they will find at the health facility”
She said CHORUS will work with the communities to generate intervention that will address accessibility challenges identified in the needs assessment of the two communities.
“Together we want to sit with them to see how can we generate some simple intervention in the communities to effect some changes especially access”
Executive Director of Women Media and Change, Dr. Charity Binka, said effective collaboration between researchers and the media could translate into a well-informed public who are able to make informed choices about their health. Dr. Binka, said urban health is critical especially as a result of rural urban migration. She encouraged the media to be deliberate about reporting on urban health issues to influence policy changes.
Researchers most of the time do research and leave the findings on the shelves. But this time round they think the media must be well informed about what the project is all about because urban health concerns all of us. Many people have left their villages they live in urban areas, we need to interrogate what they do, how they access health so this project is all encompassing. If journalists understand the issues then they can run with it. It can inform health programmes on radio, television, newspapers and all that.
Dr. Binka added “researchers cannot go round the whole of Ghana to talk about their findings but the media can take the message across Ghana and even beyond” She therefore encouraged participants to take special interest in urban health reporting.
Urbanization is one of the leading global trends of the 21stcentury that has significant impact on health. More than 55 percent of the world’s population live in urban areas, this is expected to increase to 68 percent by 2050.
There were breakout sessions where journalists brainstormed on effective ways of packaging messages on urban health reporting. There were presentations on Action plan to be pursued across various media platform such as Radio, Television and Online to catch attention of policy makers.
Some of the beneficiary journalists described the training as an eye-opener which has increased their commitment to cover issues on urban health systems and policies for effective policy-making and implementation.
