SEND Ghana, a policy research and advocacy civil society organisation, and other stakeholders have called on government to make more resources available to the health sector.
The move, they explained, will put the country on course to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – goal number three, which talks about universal access to quality healthcare and well-being.
Senior Programme Officer – SEND Ghana, Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, speaking at an event dubbed: ‘National Stakeholders’ Dialogue on Immunisation Credibility Monitoring’, said allocation of resources to the sector and execution of health projects remain a concern.
“In 2020, a COVID year, we rather spent less as 64.8 percent of total allocations to the health sector were actually released. And so, I always ask myself how the health sector performed in the midst of COVID-19, meningitis and other diseases. Then in 2021, the government performed better by releasing 93 percent of these allocations,” she said.
She added that an analysis of the 2020 and 2021 annual budget performances indicate an execution gap of 47.6 percent and 6.9 percent respectively of the health budget. Meanwhile, in 2018, the sector ministry’s expenditure exceeded its allocation of GH¢2.658billion by 8 percent.
Also in 2020, 64.8 percent of the ministry’s GH¢8.142billion appropriation was released, out of which 80.8 percent was disbursed, with the ministry expending GH¢4,256billion.
Touching on resource allocation for immunisation, SEND Ghana stated that spending on immunisation remains inadequate because of limited funding and non-release of funds by district assemblies.
The CSO therefore recommended to district assemblies to, as a matter of priority, improve on funding for immunisation exercise. It also called for timely release of funds.
In addition, SEND Ghana recommended that government increase allocation as well as ensure early release of funds. In line with these suggestions, it said the Ministry of Finance should have a separate budget line for allocations to immunisation in the national health budget.
The policy research and advocacy CSO further called on government to prioritise immunisation for the well-being of children, and for economic development.
