Ghana NCDI Poverty Commission Holds Launch Meeting
The Ghana NCDI Poverty Commission held its kickoff meeting on 5 October 2022 at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana.
Commission Co-Chairs Professor Alfred Yawson, Dean of the University of Ghana Medical School, and Dr. Efua Commeh, NCD Acting Program Manager at the Ghana Health Service, led the launch meeting.
The event featured a presentation by Commissioner Dr. Ellis Owusu Dabo, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Dr. Dabo emphasized the importance of collaboration to effectively address the non-communicable disease and injury (NCDI) burden in Ghana.
Dr. Emmanuel Mensah, Managing Director of the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and West Africa Regional Lead for the NCDI Poverty Network, shared progress updates on the Network’s work and mission. Dr. Mensah’s presentation covered the recent adoption of the PEN-Plus strategy to address severe NCDs at first-level hospitals by the 47 Member States of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO).
Dr. Marc Yambayamba, Coordinator the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) NCDI Poverty Commission, attended the event and shared experiences and lessons learned from the establishment of the DRC Commission.
During the presentations, Dr. Commeh emphasized the importance of translating the work of the Ghana Commission into actionable implementation steps to serve patients. Dr. Leonard Baatiema, Ghana Commission Coordinator, followed up by providing a timeline of the Commission’s next steps.
The Ghana NCDI Poverty Commission consists of 25 members representing the Ghana Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana NCD Alliance, Mental Health Authority Ghana, WHO, the Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, Navrongo Health Research Centre, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
The Ghana Commission is hosted by the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana.