Coalition of NGO’s in malaria nationwide dialogue begins

The Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations in Malaria with support from CS4ME and Sante Afrique has successfully conducted Malaria Community Country Dialogue with some selected CSOs in the country’s health sector.

In doing so the organization rallied support from some high profiled Civil Society Organizations to participate in the dialogue and also help in the development of Global Fund Country Concept Note-COVID-19 Response Mechanism 2021-2023.

Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Malaria (GCNM) is a Civil Society Network in Ghana with over 200 individual members across the length and breadth of the 16 regions in Ghana.

The mandate of Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Ghana of the Global Fund is to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other related communicable diseases.

Due to the Covid-19 restrictive measures the Coalition had most of their engagements adopting restrictive approaches using in-person meetings with a limited number of participants by adhering to all the outlined strict safety protocols.

This was used simply because most of their members in remote areas within the country had internet connectivity difficulties and the organisation did not want to disadvantage any group so they adopted the in-person meeting sessions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a burden on Ghana’s healthcare system and as a result that most health facilities have prioritized urgent visits and delayed elective care to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in healthcare settings.

Upon consultation with relevant stakeholders in the health sector, we realized that there have been shifts from regular outpatient consultations to strict appointment systems and less patient contact hours leading to a reduction in the outpatient attendance rates to about 30%.

Some of the areas that have gravely been affected are antenatal care services, child welfare services, mental health, and chronic care initiatives and project with national interest such as HIV, TB and Malaria have also been affected.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on global health systems, economies and communities generally, The Global Fund will continue its COVID-19 Response Mechanism, C19RM, in 2021.

Supporting countries around the world such as the United States and Germany have all announced to support the activities of The Global Fund Covid-19 Response with an amount of US$3.5 billion and EUR 140 Million respectively.

These funds are strictly meant to be used for COVID-19 related activities and also to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the fight against HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and also to strengthen the health and community systems of some selected countries.

Through the hard work of the CCM and with support from all CSO’s including the Ghana Coalition of NGO’s in Malaria Ghana has been awarded a C19RM base allocation of USD$34,004,409, which represents an amount equivalent to 15% of the applicant’s 2020-2022 country allocation.