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PRIORITIZING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND GENDER EQUALITY FOR A BETTER GHANA
In 1968, a group of world leaders proclaimed that the public had a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. As a result, in 1989, World Population Day was established by the Governing Council of the United National Development Programme as an outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion which was observed on 11th July, 1987. This initiative was necessary to generate awareness among public about the population issues such as family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health, human rights, environment and its impact on development and the impact they have on development and environment.
Interestingly, approximately 83 million people are being added to the world’s population every year. Hence, it is expected that by 2030, World population would hit a whopping 8.6 billion, and 9.8 billion by 2050. The World Population Day (WPD) has been marked in Ghana with a call on the government to make a conscious effort to make family planning available and accessible to people of reproductive age, particularly women and adolescent girls.
Last year’s celebration being the 30th year running in Ghana’s participation of the day pays tribute to the landmark International Conference on Population and Development which took place in 1994 in Cairo. This year’s global theme “ICPD at 25: Accelerating the Promise” offers countries signatory to the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA) including Ghana, the perfect opportunity to review the achievements and challenges of the 25 years’ journey of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). In the case of Ghana, a National theme, “Reproductive Health and Gender Equality for Sustainable Development” has been adopted to enable us reflect as a country how far we have come in terms of upholding the three (3) key ideals of the ICPD PoA namely human rights, health & wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health. This, according to the Executive Director of the National Population Council (NPC), Dr Leticia Adelaide Appiah, would yield socio-economic gains that could propel the country’s development forward.
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ,Sustainable Development 2030 agenda is the world’s blueprint for a better future for all on a healthy planet. On World Population Day it is recognized that this mission is closely interrelated with demographic trends including population growth, ageing, migration and urbanization.
Besides, World Population Day focuses on the importance of reproductive health and how it affects overall growth and development plans and programmes. Population issues include family planning, gender equality, child marriage, human rights, right to health, baby’s health etc. This programme basically focuses on comprehensive reproductive health care including family planning, safe pregnancy, childbirth services, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.
Last year’s World Population Day celebration was held at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra on Thursday, 11th July 2019 which kicked off with a float through the principal streets of Ga Mashie, Accra featuring the National Population Council and its partners accompanied by school children. Various messages on family planning, personal hygiene, healthy living among others were disseminated to the public to create awareness on the need for gender equality and reproductive health issues.
The mayor of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Honourable Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, delivered the keynote address indicating that WPD celebrations aims to focus on the need to accelerate the promise of meeting the goals of ICPD and other global and regional development agenda like SDGs and AU Agenda 2063. According to him, the year’s celebration calls on all stakeholders to strive to meet the reproductive health rights and needs of individuals and also put in place measures to bridge the gender equality gap existing in the country.
He added that, in spite of the progress made by Ghana after 25 years of the ICPD, maternal deaths were still high, unmet need for family planning was still on the rise while gender violence was still prevalent. Hon. Nii Adjei Sowah reiterated that these issues were what was considered as the ‘unfinished business’ that Ghana was supposed to address if it was to meet the goals of the ICPD and other development agenda commitments like the SDGs and AU Agenda 2063.
Furthermore, the Executive Director of NPC, Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah made it known that for any country to make gains in the field of population and health there was the need to expand reproductive health rights and services to reach every individual in the country. According to her, this can only be possible if stakeholders increased their efforts and adapted tried and tested strategies like the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) which levelled the playing ground in terms of access to polio vaccination and was effective in reaching all and sundry including hard-to-reach areas with the polio vaccine.
She indicated that today, polio has been eradicated in all but three countries worldwide. As such there was the need for stakeholders to consider using this approach in the delivery of reproductive health information and services since the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) had massive support from both international and national stakeholders and was delivered in a well-coordinated and equitable manner all in a bid to safeguard individuals’ right to health.
Dr. Appiah therefore called on all stakeholders to formulate policies and programmes which would tackle poverty and inequality in society since these are the main issues that limit people’s access to SRH information and services. When issues relating to poverty and inequality are dealt with, we would have a world where no one is left behind thus pave the way for unprecedented economic development due to the presence of a healthy and vibrant human populace. She established that stakeholders are to act swiftly in initiating change in the area of reproductive health and gender equality since it affects Ghana’s chances of meeting set goals in international and regional development agenda such as the SDGs and the Africa Union Agenda 2063, ‘the Africa We Want’.
More so, the representative of the Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development laid emphasis on women and girls because they suffer all kinds of sexual abuse and gender discrimination in societies. Women empowerment, investment in education, quality and accessible health care delivery for women and girls are essential to promote a healthy living and bring forth healthy offspring. It is therefore important to uphold women’s rights to reproductive health and some cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early child marriage abolished from our societies. According to him, the Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development will help the National Population Council (N.P.C) to address issues on Reproductive Health and Gender Equality for a sustainable development.
Again, Ms. Anne Coolen, the Country Director of Marie Stopes International Ghana, reiterated that, there is unfinished business when it comes to population issues. Equality means ensuring that people have equal opportunities to make the most out of their lives and talents. As such gender equality is a pre-condition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
However, most West African government lack the commitment towards reducing inequality as women and girls are the most affected. This is as a result of the lack of commitment to funding of public services such as investment in health care, and education by most governments. She bemoaned the inadequate contribution of the government of Ghana towards health care financing since the Abuja declaration in 2001 which Ghana has agreed to make a commitment of 15 percent of annual budget to health.
She continued by indicating that, in 2017, the total budgetary allocation to health was under 8 percent of which public health received only 4 percent which includes family planning and reproductive health. In as much as Ghana has good policy on family planning, little allocation of resources is being made towards its implementation thus, investment in sexual and reproductive health is a major tool for sustainable development. She then said that, Marie Stopes International Ghana will continue to support NPC and its partners to make this a reality.
In Conclusion, the chair, Dr. Gladys Norley Ashitey informed all partners gathered that NPC was committed to strengthening its collaboration with the private sector so as to enable it execute its mandate as the lead coordinating agency for all population programmes in the country.
It would be of great benefit to the nation if various partners strive to assist the NPC to meet its targets. The success story of EPI shows that with the right tools backed with commitment there was the chance that we will have a world where everyone’s right to reproductive health information and services is upheld and prioritized regardless of location, economic status or background.
Writer: Solace Esi Amanka
(PRO, National Population Council)
Source: Ghanaian Times
A haircut I had about a week ago didn’t go down well with many. Someone quite close to my heart saw it, examined it critically and felt dizzy.
“What’s this?” she proceeded to ask me.
“An international hairdo,” I replied.
She was disgusted, in fact disappointed. The problem with the haircut is that the style is neither Punk, Tokyo Joe nor Show Your Back. If anything, it is a combination of all—and I liked it, for a change.
It was when I bounded downtown that someone called me and enquired whether I was no longer a journalist. He said I looked like a well-fed Warrant Officer.
“Class One or Class Two?” I asked.
Another studied my head as if he was studying physical geography and pronounced that I looked like a boxer who can throw dangerous punches. Still, someone was of the opinion that the haircut didn’t quite fit me, but admitted that I looked like a prosperous merchant.
Commendation
I remember some three months ago, I had a haircut that made two girls fall in love with me. In spite of the fact that the barber was not a graduate, the cut was such that they couldn’t help admiring it. One of them actually ‘checked out’ the style and commended the barber.
The other was more bent on the ‘love matter’ but I was too busy to give her any attention. LOVE!
I was reminded of this when I viewed a premier showing of the latest Sikaman film titled THE POWER OF LOVE. The film kept me thinking. Some of us have long forgotten about what it is like to be head-over-heels in love. When we were students, we had such experiences because there was nothing doing anyway.
We were either learning how stylishly to smoke ‘jot’ or how romantically to fall in love. Anyhow, I was intrigued by this latest movie because of the way love unlimited was portrayed on screen. It took my memory back many years to relive those youthful days when we felt we’d really die if jilted by our lovers.
The storyline of THE POWER OF LOVE is really an exciting one. The combination of love, treachery and intrigue made me feast my eyes intently on the screen, unbelieving the extent the force of love can reach.
Ama and Afua are good friends. But when it comes to matters of the heart, they have different tastes; Ama is content with only her boyfriend (a student) and Afua samples the bigwigs around town. Afua, not satisfied with the shots in town, wants Ama’s boyfriend Joe in addition. She lies to Joe that Ama has often been picked by a man on four-wheels, whereupon Joe dismisses Ama and takes on Afua.
Ama doesn’t realise that it is her best friend Afua who is destroying her relationship with Joe until she catches her having sex with him. She collapses and goes out of her mind from the broken heart. But before then, she had been made pregnant by Joe.
Having escaped from a psychiatric hospital, she roams town murmuring Joe’s name. Heavily pregnant now, she espies Joe boarding a mini bus and runs towards him. Joe, seeing her approaching, quickly disembarks and takes off.
Ama pursues him furiously, and he runs to his home where he finds his bosom friend Frank making love to Afua. He immediately realises the treachery of Afua who instigated him to leave Ama.
He intends leaving the home in disgust and meets mad Ama at the door and embraces her despite her madness. Instantly, she regains her sanity.
Love indeed heals the wounds of the mind and it is the greatest positive force in the world. Incidentally, the greatest negative force is hatred.
Greatest force
Now coming to talk about love, I reiterate it is the greatest force imaginable. That is why a man will butcher his rival to death if he catches him climbing his wife without asking permission; and a woman will go mad if jilted.
It is also for this reason that a young boy who is scared stiff of cemeteries and under normal circumstances would not dare go near one, will this time walk boldly through a cemetery at midnight if that is the only way to his lover’s abode.
The Bible describes love for our neighbours as the surest way to heaven: Love thy neighbour as thyself.
Unfortunately, what Ghanaians are more interested and skilful in is loving the opposite sex. Romance under the cover of darkness is what we understand love to be all about. When it comes to loving our fellow human beings, we are found wanting.
People hate others just because they are of another tribe and do not speak the same native language. Too much grudge-bearing that does not augur well for national development.
War in Liberia, carnage in Rwanda are the results of the absence of love for one’s fellow being. If everybody could express a little bit of love for his fellow being irrespective of tribe, race, politics or religion, Sikaman—and indeed, the world—will be a more habitable place.
This article was first published on Saturday, October 29, 1994
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“Sir,” Ms. Odame said when David Asante answered the call, “my name is Victoria Odame. I’m a teacher at Research School in Koforidua. I would like to come and see you concerning a student called Sarah.”
“Okay, madam. I would be very glad to meet you. How can I make your trip easier?”
“I was going to join a bus to Accra.”
“Here’s what we will do. Take a taxi and ask them to bring you to Accra. I will speak to the driver, give him the directions, and pay him when you get here.”
The taxi stopped in front of the house. The gate opened, and the driver moved to the long driveway and stopped.
“What a beautiful house,” he said.
David and Adoma came out to meet them. Adoma paid the driver as David and Sarah stared at each other.
“Please come in and sit down,” Adoma invited. She served them water.
“You are welcome,” Adoma continued. “We have been waiting anxiously since you called this morning. So please, let’s hear you.”
Before she could open her mouth, Sarah rose, moved to David, hugged him, and sat on his lap. They both broke into tears. Adoma and Ms. Odame also broke into tears.
“Sorry, madam,” David said. “This whole episode has been a very difficult one. But let’s do the proper thing. Let’s hear you first, and I will also speak. I’m sure we need to answer some questions immediately.”
“Okay, sir. I have been taking an interest in Sarah because, although she’s brilliant academically, she seemed to be troubled. Following my discussions with her and some whispers I had been hearing, I went to Aboso Senior High School and spoke to your former colleague, Mr. Hanson. He told me that you were an exemplary teacher who was loved by all, and he also told me about the unfortunate events that caused you to leave for Germany. So I returned to Koforidua with the view to finding the appropriate means of helping to solve this problem.”
“Great. Ms. Odame, I have to thank you for finally helping us to solve this problem. Now, let me state the facts. This is what happened.
“Gladys and I met and got married whilst we were both teachers in the school. Some months into our marriage, she told me that she needed to spend some days with her parents, and I agreed.
“It turned out that she was actually spending time in a hotel with her ex-boyfriend, Simon. This happened again after Sarah was born. I got wind of this and told her that I was no longer interested in the marriage.
“I started preparing to travel to Germany. She pleaded for forgiveness, but I stood my ground. Then she told me that she would punish me for rejecting her.
“She came out later to say that Sarah was not my child, but Simon’s. She went and hid her somewhere, obviously expecting that I would fight to take my child. I was actually going to do that, but my parents advised me that it was almost impossible to win such a fight.
“They advised that, difficult as it sounded, I should leave the child with her because she would come back to me eventually. I have absolutely no problem taking care of you, Sarah. I am taking care of quite a number of kids who are not mine. So that is what happened. My hands were tied. I have been trying to find out how you are doing.
“I kept hearing that you were doing well at school. I also heard that Gladys and her husband were having problems, but I kept hoping that my daughter would at least be okay till it was possible for me to go for her.”
“Sarah, now you have met your dad. You will be free to—”
“I’m not going anywhere!” she declared as she held on to him.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Sarah,” Adoma said. “We have been looking forward to the day you come home. This is your home. Now, you have to meet your siblings.” She called Abrefi and Adaawa.
“Girls, we told you that you have a sister who would join us anytime. Now here she is.”
“Sarah?” Abrefi asked.
“Yes,” Adoma replied. The girls hugged her and took her away.
“Now,” David said, “I think it is time to call Madam Gladys.” He dialed the number.
“My name is David Asante. I’m here in my house with my daughter Sarah. I hear you have told her all sorts of crazy stories about me. I could make life very difficult for you, but I won’t.
“You are your own worst enemy. I don’t think you should be expecting her anytime soon. What do you say?”
Gladys stayed silent for over a minute, then cut the line.
“Food is ready,” Adoma announced. “Everybody, please come to the table.”
Sarah chatted excitedly with her siblings as Adoma and David spoke with Ms. Odame. She kept staring at her father.
“Now, Ms. Odame, after you have brought such joy into our home, should we allow you to go back to Koforidua today, or should we wait till we are ready to release you? I could call your husband and ask permission.
“And please don’t tell me you didn’t bring anything for an overnight stay. There are several supermarkets around here. We can fix that problem quickly.”
“I will beg you to release me. Now that I have been so warmly welcomed here, I already feel part of this home. Koforidua is not that far away, so I will visit often.”
“Well, let’s see what the kids have to say. Ladies, shall I release Ms. Odame to go back to Koforidua?”
“No!” they shouted, and all broke into laughter.
“Ms. Odame, I will have mercy on you. But we are going to do something to make it easy for you to visit us. My wife wants to show you something. Please follow her.”
Adoma led her to the driveway as the others followed. They stopped in front of the car.
“This is a Toyota Corolla 1600. It is very reliable and good on petrol consumption. We are giving this to you in appreciation of your help in getting our daughter back to us.
“And here in this envelope is a little contribution to help you with maintenance. And here in this other envelope is a gift to help with your children’s school fees.”
As she stood, stunned, and stared from the car to the envelopes, David put his hand around his family.
“Let’s leave her to take a look at her car. Ms. Odame, one of my drivers will drive you to Koforidua and leave your car with you. We are waiting inside.”
By Ekow de Heer
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