The Ghana AIDS Commission, as part of its activities for this year, will target 2.6million people for HIV testing services, the Finance Committee report on the 2018 Programme Bases Budget Estimates of the Office of Government Machinery, has revealed.
The report further states that the Commission will continue to co-ordinate and manage the decentralized multi sectoral responses to HIV and AIDS.
It will test about 1,184,573 pregnant women for HIV, as well as, target 30,000 adults and 1,694 children for anti-retroviral treatment.
The Commission will also distribute 65,563,873 male condoms and 1,351,227 female condoms.
To achieve their programme of activities, the Commission was allocated GH₵31m for the 2018 fiscal year.
The Commission collaborates and works closely with a wide-range of organizations including development partners, in carrying out its mandate of management and co-ordination of HIV and AIDS activities in the country. It provides funding support to Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), private sector enterprises, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and other civil society organizations to undertake HIV and AIDS activities in the country.
They also provide effective and efficient leadership in the coordination of all programmes and activities of all stakeholders (MDAs, Private Sector, Development Partners and Civil Society) in the Fight against HIV and AIDS through advocacy, joint planning, monitoring and evaluation for the eventual elimination of the disease and undertake HIV and AIDS activities in the country.
The Ghana AIDS Commission is a supra-ministerial and multi-sectoral body established under the Chairmanship of H. E the President of the Republic of Ghana by Act 613, 2002 of Parliament. Its mandate is to provide support, guidance and leadership for the national response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
President Akufo-Addo in April last year, re-constituted a 19-member governing board of the Ghana AIDS Commission, and charged the members to use their resourcefulness to mobilise the requisite resources for the prosecution of the commission’s “ambitious” five-year national HIV and AIDS strategic plan.
Ambassador Dr. Mokowa Blay Adu-Gyamfi, former Ghana’s High Commissioner to Sierra Leone (2005 to 2009), was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to act as Director General of Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) with effect from April 25, 2017.
