• Ghana signs an agreement with France to help strengthen the health sector in the country.

• As a result of this agreement, Ghana will be offered additional support for scientific research.

One of the benchmarks of developed countries is their investment in the healthcare sector; the attention they pay to their healthcare system.

Ghana as a country is intentionally looking into its healthcare system and one of the actions taken as regards this is the agreement that has been signed with France to help strengthen the health sector in the country. 

This agreement implies that additional support will be offered to the country for scientific research into the most appropriate way to implement secondary prevention of cervical cancer among women living with HIV.

€2.8 million was granted to the Ghana Health Service and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and this grant was made possible through Expertise France. The grant will also support the country’s response against malaria, tuberculosis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The agreement between the two countries was signed by both countries at the Residence of the France Ambassador to Ghana in Accra last Thursday. 

The Director-General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, initialed on behalf of the beneficiaries, while the Head of Cooperation at the French Embassy in Ghana, Julien -Lecas, signed for his country. Mr. Lecas, representing his ambassador, confirmed that Ghana had received support from the Global Fund for over 20 years, with significant investment in HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria pandemics.

“And as you may know, France is a major donor to the Global Fund. This week, the team of L’Initiative from Expertise France is here in Accra, together with the Global Fund country team. We hope that this visit will trigger further development of L’Initiative’s portfolio in Ghana. We at the French Embassy in Ghana are very pleased to be able to officially launch the two programs funded by L’Initiative to strengthen and evaluate the quality of health services by the GHS on one hand. And on the other hand, it is also aimed at supporting the secondary prevention of cervical cancer among women living with HIV through the NMIMR,” he said.

The Technical Director at Expertise France Groupe, Eric Fleutelot, said his outfit was pleased to support Ghana improve on its health care.

“And I know that we are already making progress”, however, more efforts were needed to reduce vertical transmission of HIV, he added.

Dr. Kuma-Aboagye mentioned that the grant was offered through a community scorecard initiative by the GHS. He said the initiative, introduced in 2018, was aimed at strengthening community participation in health care and improving accountability in service delivery. According to him, the grant would help extend the scorecard implemented to include HIV and tuberculosis.

An Associate Professor in charge of Medicine, Molecular, Microbiology, and Virology at NMIMR, Prof. George Kyei, said there was a need for a national policy to integrate cervical cancer screening into routine HIV care.