“The students will be selected from deprived communities of the
country and they will return after training to work in those
communities to help eliminate child and maternal mortality among other
challenges to ensure quality health delivery,” he said.
Vice President Mahama said this during a meeting organised to
spell out the contribution of European Union and other stakeholders
towards the achievement all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by
2015.
He said inadequate doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff
had over the years stifled Ghana’s development agenda and expressed
the hope that with the training of more medical personnel, quality
health would be brought to the doorsteps of people, particularly in
the rural areas.
The meeting among other issues outlined the achievements of Ghana
in the MDGs and measures underway to improve on those areas that they
are either completely off track or battling to cope up.
Vice President Mahama said although resources were necessary for
the achievement of those goals, there was the urgent need to tackle
the level of commitment and change of attitude to particularly achieve
the MDG seven bordering on environmental sustainability.
He said attitudinal changes in the provision of household toilets
were necessary and useful towards the eradication of diarrhoeal
diseases such as cholera which is claiming lives in the country.
He said the government would continue to partner development
partners to ensure that the MDGs were achieved as stipulated.
Vice President Mahama said though achieving the Goal on water and
sanitation was a daunting task considering the current achievement
rate of only 12 percent, the government would inject into the system
workable strategies that would ultimately yield dividends in those
areas.
Madam Ruby Sandhu-Rajan, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), commended Ghana for taking up the bold
step of reducing hunger and poverty and called for similar enthusiasm
to fight against malnourishment, child and maternal mortality and
sanitation.
She said while over 1.2 million Ghanaians were not sufficiently
catered for in terms of food security, 14 percent of children were
still undernourished with nine percent of women in reproductive age
considered undernourished.
She called for the scaling up of community-led educational
programmes and public/ private sector partnership to ensure effective
achievement of the MDGs.
Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and
Rural Development, said the current situation where over 20 percent of
the Ghanaian population still defecated in bushes was unacceptable and
called for collaboration between government and other agencies to
eliminate the practise.
“Over 70 percent of the Out-Patient Departments of our health
facilities are attributable to poor sanitation and if we have to
achieve our goals, then we need to double up our activities and
collaboration.”
Mr Claude Marten, European Union Ambassador in Ghana, said the
meeting would focus on areas that Ghana was not faring well, at the
end of which appropriate interventions would be made towards the
achievement of their aims and objectives.
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