Effective implementation of family planning can enhance MDGs – Mahama

Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Monday  said effective implementation of family planning programmes had the potential of enhancing Ghana’s achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

“This is because Family Planning cuts across all sectors including environment, child and maternal mortality, HIV and AIDS and malaria, population growth, malnutrition and poverty alleviation.”

Vice President Mahama said these in a speech read on his behalf by Dr. Benjamin Kunbour, Minister of Health, at the launch of “Life Choices” Family Planning promotion campaign, in Accra.

The Programme, which was organized by Ghana Health Service, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is aimed at increasing family planning practice, which took a nosedive a few years after its effective implementation in the country.

The Vice President noted that most national policies could not succeed in the past because they lacked governmental commitment.

He promised that government would continue to provide all the necessary support that would ensure the success of the programme.

“In 2005, Ghana hosted an international conference on the repositioning of family planning for members in the West African Sub-Region where a road map was developed and we shall continue to chart that path to embrace effective implementation of the programme.”

Vice President Mahama commended the USAID and other partners for their perennial support for the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to provide health educational programmes and services to Ghanaians.

The Vice President appealed to health workers to develop simple, but useful messages that would help them make inroads in their educational programmes, particularly in their outreach stations throughout the country.

Source: GNA