GHANA – Ghana’s Ministry of Health has unveiled the National Health Promotion Strategy for the period 2022-2026 that seeks to improve the quality of health promotion services at all levels as well as increase collaboration for health service provision.
The government ministry of Ghana announced that the Minister for Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu launched the strategy at the second Ghana Health Service (GHS) Senior Managers’ Meeting in Accra.
The ministry further said that the National Health Promotion Strategy describes the opportunities and strategies to further improve Health Promotion in Ghana, through an all-inclusive approach that leverages efforts and resources to sustain impact.
During the launching ceremony, the Minister for Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman Manu said that individual and group behavior change was a critical element in any health program and system while encouraging the management of the GHS to recommit themselves towards effective health service delivery.
Hon. Kwaku Agyeman Manu highlighted that people seek health services because of their behaviours and improving important health indicators is one of the main challenges facing the health ministry.
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.
He noted that the ability and leadership of the GHS to coordinate the development of the meeting and the launch of the National Health Promotion Strategy 2022-2026 was a major step towards ensuring a roadmap to realize the integration of demand generation, behavior change and health service delivery.
He pointed out that the integration of demand generation, behavior change and health service delivery, when effectively planned and implemented, will see measurable improvements in key health indicators and a healthier society.
“We know that using modern family planning methods including condoms for safe sex has a demonstrable impact on families and communities by spacing out births and preventing sexually transmitted diseases,” Honorable Agyeman-Manu added.
He emphasized that healthy eating diets and the incorporation of nutrient-rich foods can reduce the impact on non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and other harmful effects of obesity.
“There was a need for an effective, responsive and well-managed health systems delivery, evidence-driven health promotion and behavior change interventions at all levels especially at the community level,” he added.
At the same time, the Director of the Health Promotion Division, Dr Da Costa Aboagye said the National Health Promotion Strategy would seek to build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills and re-orient health services.
The new strategy will also increase the ability of Ghanaians to improve their health, involve the population in the context of their everyday lives and drive activities that are geared toward promoting health and preventing ill-health.
In addition, the strategy will improve the health of communities in Ghana and increase collaboration and partnerships for health service provision while providing a link between health care planning and systems strengthening to health promotion, behavior change and risk communication efforts.
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