ECOWAS Health Meeting begins in Accra

The Second ECOWAS Best Practices Forum in Health opened in Accra on Monday to review Good Practices identified by Ghana after the Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast meeting in 2016.

The two-day meeting would select the good practices and develop a national plan on scaling up.

Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister of Health, recalled that the Forum on Good Practices in Health was recommended by the 15th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Assembly of Health Ministers, which was held in Monrovia in April, 2014.

He said its key purpose was to promote and disseminate good practices in health for enhanced efficiency programmes.

It emphasises on promoting the sharing of experiences, mobilising and aligning all key stakeholders with regional and national priorities, stimulating change for appropriate reforms in health systems and monitoring and evaluating progress by member countries, in the replication and scaling up of Good Practices in health.

The Minister whose speech was read on his behalf also recalled that the theme for the second edition of the Forum on Good Practices was “Promoting Innovations in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals”.

He said Ghana presented five abstracts - Implementation of Community-based Health Planning and Services in Ghana; Alternative Birthing Position; Pregnancy School in Ghana; Community Emergency Transport System; and Employee Assistance Programme Initiative.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the way forward was for countries to identify up to three good practices for implementation.

He said Ghana, accordingly, requested financial and technical support for the West African Health Organisation in January 2017, to establish a Health Information Management System at the Ministry of Health, Community Emergency Transport System at Wa-West District of the Upper West Region, an Employee Assistance Programme for Health Workers in Ghana and Birthing Chairs.

“The high hopes we had initially dwindled with the passage of time until the past few weeks, when the topic was revisited”, the Minister said.

He said “it is our belief that the implementation of the above good practises in health would significantly improve delivery of health care and quality health data, for planning, policy formulation and decision making.”
He expressed gratitude to the West African Health Organisation for supporting the forum, and said he believed that the meeting, would yield conclusions that would best support and promote best practices in health within the sub-region.

Dr. Olorunda Joseph Olugbenga, Professional Officer, Division of Human Resources Development for Health, West African Health Organisation, said the main aim of the meeting was to identify “what works and what does not” with health specific support.

He urged participants to follow up on conclusions of the meeting, and implement them, accordingly.

The meeting is being participated by representatives from the Ministry of Health, West African Health Organisation, and a number of health organisations and bodies.