The strategy, also seeks to address the continued health financing, service delivery challenges and to complement existing efforts towards Universal Health Coverage attainment in Ghana.

It was developed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) with funding from the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (UNMPTF) through the tech­nical leadership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This is in a statement issued by Ibrahim Suhuyini Sayibu, Communications Officer of the WHO, Ghana Country Office, copied the Ghanaian Times.

It said “Health financing has been identified as the key to un­locking progress towards the at­tainment of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as enshrined in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, especially Sustain­able Development Goal (SDG) three.”

On average, Ghana’s total health spending is lower than comparator Sub-Saharan African and lower-middle income coun­tries. However, it has a relatively higher share of health spending derived from public sources as compared to out-of-pocket sources,” the statement said.

According to the MoH, ex­ternal assistance for health had decreased dramatically as a share of total health spending between 2015 and 2019, falling from 25 per cent to 11 per cent.

“This number is higher on average as compared to other lower-middle income and there is a concern about a lack of sig­nificant policy measures needed to facilitate a transition process whereby previously supported donor interventions are sustained with domestic, public financing,” it added.

“Ghana has taken very sig­nificant steps towards achieving the UHC and we recognised that financing our health ambitions cannot be realised without an effective strategy in place,” Mr Kwakye Kontor, the Head of Planning & Budget Unit at the MoH and the lead Coordinator of the review of the Health Financing Strategy, noted.