By Hannah Dadzie
Hope for Future Generations (HFFG), an NGO, has asked the government to adopt mechanisms beyond foreign donors for sustainable immunisation funding to protect children from any vaccine-related diseases and deaths.
Speaking at a media sensitisation on the Financing Immunisation Advocacy Response Project in Accra, the Executive Director of the organisation, Cecilia Senoo, said alternative avenues can be considered to enhance financing immunisation, such as trust funds and earmarked taxes. She said immunisation sovereignty and, for that matter, public healthcare should be given priority, as it has been done in other sectors of the economy.
The Media Sensitization on the Financing Immunisation Advocacy Response, FAIR Project, is to equip the media with relevant knowledge, facts, and figures on Ghana’s Immunisation Programme for effective advocacy to secure the future of children and the country’s public health. HFFG said that while Ghana has made impressive strides in achieving high immunisation coverage, it is critical to acknowledge that these achievements have largely relied on external support, primarily from the GAVI alliance. It said this external dependence has been fraught with challenges, including delays and inconsistencies in fulfilling financial obligations.
The Executive Director of Hope for Future Generations, Cecilia Senoo, said the FAIR Project, which is a five-year project with support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, GHAI will play a pivotal role in advocating an increase in domestic resource mobilisation at national and local levels, dedicated to primary healthcare and immunisation service delivery. It will also ensure timely payment of Immunization obligations.
”This project is very important and you know the media is very critical when it comes to advocacy in this country. We are looking at Ghana having its own resources for immunisation and other diseases to ensure that we sustain the health and protect the health of the citizens. If we put in more resources into health and we monitor accountability, which is important, I think we should be able to pay. I think there is money, I won’t say there is no money, if there is no money we are paying tax and so if we are paying all this tax and we are not prioritizing, it’s all about prioritization, there is no way you will say you are running this country without prioritizing the health of children. Infrastructure is important, all other things are important but prioritizing the health of the children is very important to us,” Madam Senoo indicated
The Country Manager of Global Health Advocacy Incubator, GHAI, Stephen Atasige, said there should be a clear budget line for immunisation and also timely release of payments for vaccines to avoid stockouts and secure the future of children.
“Let’s commit a budget for our immunisation financing so that when eventually Ghana is no longer supported by GAVI by 2028, we can on our own immunise our children and protect them. Unfortunately, we haven’t paid all of our obligations for 2023 yet, even though we have done better in the payment obligations than we did in 2022, going forward we need to ensure that we do not escape the payment.
We should not as a country run out completely or to some levels where it begins to create issues of not having access, where mothers or parents take their children to health facilities and they are told that they do not have vaccines,” Mr. Atasige noted.
According to Hope for Future Generations, in 2023, for instance, Ghana has only paid 60 percent of its anticipated contribution to routine immunisation expenditure, which is of serious concern. It said it will continue to advocate for the sustainability of immunisation financing, as it believes prevention is better than cure.
