CSOs in Health urge government to recommit to Abuja pledge

Ghana’s Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Health are urging the government to be consistent in its commitment to the 2001 Abuja Declaration to sufficiently fund healthcare.

The CSOs say since 2001 when Ghana signed to commit itself to spending at least 15% of the total national budget on health, it has managed to achieve the target only in 2005 and 2007.

Should the trend continue, the CSOs say the country risks missing out on the WHO recommendation for universal access to healthcare by 2015.

“WHO in 2010 recommended that, in order to achieve universal access to healthcare by 2015, Ghana’s total health spending – including both government and private spending – should amount to a minimum of US$54 per person. This target cannot be met if the Government does not meet the 15% Benchmark,” the CSOs warned in a statement issued at the end of a meeting in Accra on July 9.

The CSOs said the 15% benchmark can be achieved if the Government, among other interventions, takes active steps to bridge the gap on its spending on healthcare; facilitate the actual release and disbursement of allocated funds; and manage identified funding leakages.

They also want the government to avoid increasing the NHIS premium as a “quick fix” to increasing financing or it will defeat its essence as a social protection programme targeted at the poor.  

Click to read the communiqué issued by the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Health.