Experts discuss Malaria advocacy (Page 28)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
A DEPUTY Minister of Health, Dr Gladys Norley Ashitey, has said that Ghana is working very hard to ensure that 80 per cent of the population uses insecticide treated nets to protect themselves against malaria by 2015.
She said even though the country was still in the control phase of the disease, it planned to quickly progress towards the elimination of the disease in line with the global goals.
Dr Ashitey was addressing participants in Accra last Tuesday at the opening of a three-day annual international meeting for the Voices for Malaria-Free Future under the theme, “Consolidating Malaria Advocacy Investment to Date - Malaria Advocacy”.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr Ashitey said the country also had plans to strongly fight the disease by increasing the use of intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women, embark on indoor residual spraying as well as treatment programmes with new and more effective medication.
She also said the country was committed to the goals of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) which had the aim of eliminating malaria by 2015 adding that although Ghana, like many Saharan countries were still in the control phase of malaria, it was a critical part of the country’s plan to quickly cross that threshold and progress towards the total elimination of the disease.
She stressed that the achievement of this goal was not a dream but a course to which the government of Ghana was fully committed to and would like to maintain and strengthen collaboration with all its partners especially the Global Fund, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the Department for International Development (DFID).
The Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) came about when as major move towards elimination and eventual eradication of malaria, world political leaders and philanthropists launched a plan on September 25, 2008, with a promise of $3 billion to fight malaria around the world.
For the first time, GMAP selected 30 endemic countries and regions which included Ghana and 65 international institutions to accelerate the fight .
In her remarks, the Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr (Mrs) Constance Bart-Plange said malaria control programme in Ghana was achieving positive results and expressed the hope that the country would soon be free from the disease.
She said her outfit had enjoyed very fruitful working relations with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Ghana, especially, Voices for Malaria-Free Future.
In a statement read on his behalf, the WHO Representative in Ghana, Dr Daniel Kertesz said the role of communication in malaria control could not be overemphasised adding that a sound communication strategy would support the access of beneficiaries and consumers to accurate health information through a language of their preference as well as channels of communication which required the least effort to access.
He, therefore, commended Voices for Malaria-Free Ghana for the effort it was making to get the right message to the people through community advocacy programmes.
Oh his part, the Director of Voices at Johns Hopkins Univsersity/Center for Communication Programme in the US, Dr Matthew Lynch said in two years, Voices had become a valued part of the malaria community acting as a strong Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partner throughout the world adding that the group had a strategic approach to advocacy as well as working in partnership but not as competitor to other stakeholders in the fight against malaria.
The Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) who was also the chairman for the function, Dr George Amofah expressed delight that many individuals and groups were currently supporting the fight against malaria and expressed the hope that the fight would be intensified for the country to achieve its set target.