HFFG advocates domestic ring- fenced funding for immunization

The latest Country Multi-Year Plan (cMYP), 2020-2024, by GAVI vaccine alliance, shows that Ghana requires $514,177,471 to fund immunization activities between 2020 and 2024.However, only $266,521,876 has been assured based on government's capacity to generate the revenue from internal taxes, IGF and external source, leaving a funding gap of $247,655,595.To address the funding gap for immunization, the Hope for Future Generation (HFFG) has advocated the mobilisation of domestic resources to fund immunization as donor support dwindles, with threats of total withdrawal by 2030.Ms. Nancy Ansah, Director of Programs for HFFG told the Ghana News Agency that a ring-fenced immunization fund was very important to ensure that more children were immunized to grow healthy.'It is better to immunize and prevent diseases than to wait to respond to disease outbreaks with huge budgets for treatment,' she said.She called for the timely release of funds allocated for immunization and a decentralised health budget whic h could be transferred from the national level to the District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) for the implementation of specific activities.Ghana's immunization coverage has exceeded international benchmarks, this achievement has been made possible due to the country's dependence on the GAVI alliance to provide vaccines.Ms. Ansah said there was now an urgent need to mobilise resources domestically to fund immunization as GAVI planned to withdraw its support.'Ghana defaulted in paying its co-financing to GAVI in 2014, 2016 and 2018, and in subsequent years,' she said, adding that, that must stop.She said Ghana's inability to pay the obligated amount was due to budgetary constraints and untimely release of fundsThat, she said, was resulting in logistical constraints such as old or no vaccine cold chains, unavailability of child health record booklet at service delivery points, and inadequate human resource to reach the remotest areas and urban poor.Ms. Ansah said the vaccination programme in Ghana faced several challenges due to disruptions in the delivery and uptake of immunization services.'The shortage of most vaccines such as TB, polio, and measles in health facilities threatens to reverse hard won progress.'She said the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) also recorded delays in vaccine payment, inadequate operational funds for district, sub-district and community-level activities, and inadequate cold chain at the sub-district level as some challenges.The health sector, in general, receives an annual average of eight per cent of the national budget, against the Abuja Declaration target of 15 per cent.The cMYP is a key planning and management tool for national immunization programmes, which addresses global, national, and subnational immunization objectives and strategies.It evaluates the costs and financing of the programme in line with the WHO-UNICEF Global Immunization Vision and Strategy 2006-2015.Source: Ghana News Agency