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• Mr John Nkaw (standing) leading participants to draw an action plan on effective ways to cover mortality issues.

Media personnel discuss maternal health

Over the years, Ghana has made some progress in reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR). From an MMR of 740 per 100,000 live births in 1990, the 2010 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Report showed the country’s maternal mortality rate to be at 451 per 100,000 live births.

However, the slow progress is a great concern to policy decision-makers to an extent that maternal mortality was declared a national emergency in July 2008.

This led to the development of the MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) action plan, to redouble efforts to overcome bottlenecks in implementing interventions that have proven to have worked against reducing maternal mortality rate in Ghana. 

Priority interventions 

The three key priority intervention areas identified under the Action Plan of MAF are: improving family planning; skilled delivery and emergency obstetric and newborn care.

To enable media personnel, among other things, to develop more effective advocacy messages and use their existing platforms to better promote citizens-government engagement on maternal health issues, SEND-Ghana, in collaboration with Christian Aid Ghana, recently organised a day’s workshop for media personnel on maternal health communication and advocacy at the University for Development Studies in Tamale.

In his presentation, the Regional Health Promotion Officer, Mr Joel Abekuliya, who spoke on MAF and the country’s action plan, said the MDG Acceleration Framework – Ghana Action Plan, was developed by the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service in collaboration with development partners, particularly the United Nations, country team and other stakeholders in Ghana. 

National objectives of MAF 

He said the national objectives of MAF Operational Plan were to redouble efforts to overcome bottlenecks in implementing interventions in achieving maternal mortality goals and do things differently to achieve the global maternal mortality goal of 185/100,000 live births by 2015.

He said for the Northern Region, operational targets were to reduce institutional maternal mortality rate from 174/100,000 live births to 100/100,000 live births, working within the core mandate of MAF.

According to him, this would be done by maintaining antenatal service registrants at 115.1 per cent, to increase health facility visits by pregnant women to more than four times, from 57 per cent to 70 per cent, to increase skilled delivery coverage from 47.4 per cent to 60 per cent, to increase post-natal service coverage from 90.9 to 100 per cent and to increase family planning services coverage from 16.7 to 25 per cent.

Advocacy

Speaking on strengthening demand-side advocacy for citizen-government engagement, Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation Co-ordinator of SEND-Ghana, Tamale, Mr Mohammed Mumuni, said, as advocates, the media needed to follow up and monitor the progress of issues being addressed at the national level, scrutinise factors affecting the fight against maternal mortality and, for instance, analyse policies such as the free maternal health policy.

He said advocacy, a tool for citizens’ participation, required internal democracy, human and economic resources, credibility, willingness to struggle, ability to mobilise people, relationship with government actors, alliance and good leaders.

For his part, the Communication Officer, SEND-Ghana, Mr Pascal K. Kudiabor, who spoke on Strengthening CSO-Media Relations, said the media was central to all aspects of sustainable development.

Media reporting

Mrs Linda Asante-Agyei of the Ghana News Agency, who touched on Effective Media Reporting on Maternal Health, said all the eight MDGs had a link with goal five that related to reducing maternal mortality, pointing out that as watchdogs of society, the media had pivotal roles to play in helping to educate the public on maternal health issues. 

Elaborating on the purpose of the workshop, the Programme Officer, SEND- Ghana, Tamale, Mr John Nkaw, said one key objective of civil society organisations working in the north was to produce evidence-based data and research through participatory research.

Mr Nkaw, who took participants through the drawing up of an action plan in relation to the coverage of maternal mortality issues, said CSOs would need the media to amplify their research, equip communities with knowledge and skills leading to better behavioural change and increase transparency in the use of resources.

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