Over the decades, Ghana has taken significant steps towards improved maternal health outcomes. The 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey (GMHS) showed Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) reduced to 740 to 319/100,000 live births between 1990 and 2015.
The Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) policy provides entry points for Primary Health Care (PHC), in particularly the provision of Antenatal care (ANC) and Postnatal Care (PNC) for expectant mothers in hard-to-reach and deprived communities.
The Free Maternal care Policy component of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), is intended to contribute to remove financial barriers to maternal healthcare. The aforesaid are significant steps towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and, by inference, Sustainable Development Goal 3, target 3.1, which envisions achieving maternal mortality ratio of less than 70 per 100,000 live deaths.
Nonetheless, challenges remain: some CHPS facilities are in dilapidated state and, under-resourced—logistics and human resource. This is accentuated by the tortuous distance that some expectant mothers trek in their quest to access health care. Perennial delays regarding processing and reimbursement of claims by primary healthcare providers including CHPS, undercuts equitable access and financial coverage for vulnerable/indigent populations, including women.
To respond to the aforesaid challenge, there is a compelling need for increased financial investment in the health sector. The Abuja Declaration, incepted in 2001 under the auspices of the African Union (AU), tasked African states to allocate at least 15 percent of their budget to the health sectors; the World Health Organization (WHO) also requires member-states to invest 4-5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to improve the health sector.
However, a trend analysis paints a grim picture of health sector spending—from 10 per cent of the total budget in 2010, to 7 per cent in 2017. As of 2019, health sector spending represented 3.5% of GDP—below the WHO’s requirement. Development partner/donor funding for the health sector has also decreased at an annual rate of at least 10 percent between 2015 to 2020. The above shortfall, if not mitigated, poses an existential threat to UHC in general and maternal health care in particular.
It is against this background that Media General’s 3 Foundation, with funding from Star Ghana, is hosting a National Level Dialogue on maternal healthcare on February 1, 2024.
Theme: Sustainable Health Financing to Achieve Improved Maternal Health Outcomes
Venue: Executive Theatre, TV3
Time: 10am
The dialogue presents entry points for experts and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to reflect on interventions, that can contribute to increased investment in healthcare, with a view to significantly reduce maternal mortality.
By Samuel Owusu