Funding for HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria reduced

Global Fund allocation to Ghana towards the elimination of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has reduced from US$250 million in the 2015-17 implementation periods to US$194 million for the next three years.

The reduction in allocation, which is partly linked to the country's performance in tackling those diseases, has been described as worrying given the fact that interventions have not reached marginalised populations across the country.

The Executive Secretary of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) of Global Fund, Mr Daniel Norgbedzie, who stated this, therefore, called on service providers and other key stakeholders to deliver quality services to reverse the trend.

Collaboration

The executive secretary was speaking at an annual workshop organised by the CCM in Accra to review Ghana's performance in the elimination of the diseases over the last three years.

"Global Fund allocation to the country has reduced to US$194 million from the US$250 million we got in the last three years and this calls for concern. This is sad because the reduction comes at a time our intervention services are still not reaching the marginalised and the under-privileged in some parts of the country," he stated.

Mr Norgbedzie underscored the need for strong collaboration between service providers in the public and private sectors to ensure improvements in service delivery.
He urged the service providers to revise their strategies to remove barriers to effective delivery of services to vulnerable populations in particular.

Global Fund

Meanwhile, the Global Fund Portfolio Manager, High Impact Africa I, Mr Mark Saalfeld, said the funds were allocated based on the pool of money available to the global body and the performance of the respective countries, stressing that Ghana could further have its allocation reduced by 2021, if it failed to improve on its performance.

“Ghana’s performance over the years has not been at the top. However, if Ghana performs better in the coming years, additional funds could be made available to them,” he explained.

For his part, a Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Yaw Aboagye Gyedu, described the allocation from Global Fund as key to improving health-care delivery in the country.

He said the government would continue to partner actors in the private sector and other civil society organisations (CSOs) to leverage on the support from the global body to tackle diseases.