The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has established a national Inter-agency Coordinating Committee (ICC-HP) to boost health promotion, particularly the maintenance of good health and prevention of diseases.
By that goal, the committee is expected to enhance the national drive of empowering people and communities to take control of their health by adopting healthy lifestyles.
The 13-member committee was inaugurated in Accra on Tuesday and is chaired by the Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann.
The committee has also been tasked to foster improved communication, cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders while harnessing and coordinating advisory resources of key stakeholders to improve health and well-being.
Inaugurating the committee, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said innovations to boost health promotion had become more critical with the rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to lifestyle choices such as physical inactivity, poor diet and substance abuse.
Enhancing health promotion, he said would also help address the menace of misinformation and disinformation to improve health outcomes.
“This is why we brought together people from both the public and private sector to assist us in dealing with these challenges of health promotion”, he said.
Capacity
Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the members of the committee had the capacity to work together with the GHS to improve the health situation in the country through advocacy.
He added that through an effective collaboration with the private sector, the committee would harness the many opportunities offered and leverage resources to sustain investment made in health.
He expressed his profound gratitude to USAID and the members of the committee for supporting the initiative, thereby urging them to continue providing the necessary capacity to achieve the vision of the GHS on the ICC-HP.
Prof. Kaufmann for her part said the committee would adopt strategic ways and undertake activities to help people adopt healthy lifestyles.
She further stated that the committee would mobilise resources for health and ensure that its programmes fitted into the national health promotion strategy.
The members of the committee include: the Managing Director of Mullen Lowe, Norkor Duah, The Country Director of Johns Hopkins University, Center for Communication Programs, Emmanuel Fiagbey, the Registrar and CEO of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Kwabena Agyekum and the Deputy Director of HPD, GHS , Mabel Asafo.
Others include a lecturer at University of Professional Studies, Accra , Robert Amponsah, the Vice President, Ghana Medical Association, Dr Justice Yankson, the Director for Health Promotion Division, GHS, Dr DaCosta Aboagye, the Managing Director, AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control, Samuel Asiedu and the President of Advertising Association of Ghana, Andrew Ackah.
The rest are the National Programme Coordinator, Women in Law and Development in Africa, Melody Darkey, the Head of Communications and Public Education, Food and Drugs Authority, Rhoda Ewurabena Appiah, a representative from Association of Ghana Industries, John Defor, the Chief Executive Officer of GLICO Healthcare, Maame Afriyie Boachie, the Director of Haven International, Jennifer Brock and the CEO of Kinapharma Pharmaceutical Limited, Kofi Nsiah-Poku.
SOURCE: GraphicOnline
