ACE broadcaster and women’s health advocate, Josephine Oppong-Yeboah, has urged the government to pay more attention to women’s health in Ghana.
She said women’s health remains a global public health concern, as the health and wealth of any society largely depend on the health and wealth of its women.
She observed that due to gender inequali¬ties and other social factors, many women in the country are unable to access healthcare, a situation she noted, has led many to their early graves or deteriorated their health.
In an interview with The Spectator, Ms. Oppong-Yeboah, said the health of women was fundamental to the socio-economic development of the country and that “pri¬oritising the health of women will to a large extent help better the lifespan of the gener¬al population.”
She recalled that women’s health was emphasised at the fourth World Confer¬ence on Women held in Beijing in 1995, and added that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also gave attention to women’s health.
Ms. Oppong-Yeboah said gender inequality in accessing care had further been height¬ened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pan¬demic, which according to her had worsened the existing inequalities.
She also said women and girls have been exposed to sexual and gender-based violence while their health had generally been associ¬ated with reproductive health.
She was of the view that many available services and delivery methods do not ade¬quately support women’s access to health care, explaining that many health interven¬tions do not take into account the realities of women and girls’ mobility, time, and materi¬al resources.
By Benedicta Gyimaah Folley