Accra, Dec. 16, GNA— Professor Haruna Issahaku, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Development Studies, says Government needs to add more than double of its financial allocation to Agenda 111 if it aims to accomplish the project by 2025.
He said that may require that Government rallied donor support around the project so that it could mobilise the needed funds to make the dream a reality.
Prof Issahaku said Government should also clarify timelines for executing the project and then allocate resources in line with the timelines.
The Senior Lecturer said this on Thursday at the Partnerships Beyond Aid Forum organised by Star Ghana Foundation in Accra.
The event was on the theme: “2022 Budget for Health and Education services delivery in a COVID-19 era”.
Government’s Agenda 111 project seeks to construct 111 health facilities, including new regional hospitals, new district hospitals, and new psychiatric hospitals across the country.
The objective is to ensure that Ghanaians in every district and region in the country have access to quality healthcare services.
It is in line with the Government’s commitment to ensuring universal health care to all citizens and the attainment of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3).
Each of the hospitals will cost $16.88 million, with $12.88 million being used for the construction of the hospitals and $4 million for medical equipment.
The hospitals are expected to be completed within 18 months.
Prof Issahaku noted that Agenda 111 had been allocated GHC518million, representing about four per cent of the allocation to the health sector.
He urged Government to allocate resources towards Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds in primary healthcare clinics and facilities to improve access to healthcare services at disadvantaged communities in the country.
In the area of social protection, he urged Government to allocate resources to Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to meet the medium-term expenditure framework target of reaching 350,000 households in 2022, and to cater for pandemic induced poverty and vulnerabilities.
Prof Issahaku also said they should work to complete the process of enlisting LEAP beneficiaries unto the National Health Insurance Scheme.
On Education, he said Government should consistently increase educational sector spending to meet the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) threshold of 15 to 20 per cent of total budget expenditure to improve education.
Prof Issahaku said there should be a balance when allocating resources amongst the various levels of education so that no level was left behind.
He said to ensure proper analysis of allocation o the sector, the Ministry of Education should provide aggregated expenditure in the education sector to assist in accessing expenditure trends, and resource use efficiency and spending gaps.
The Senior Lecturer said the Ministry of Education should also view the introduction of textbooks for the new curricula as a national emergency.
As such, he said they should introduce a definite timeline for introducing the textbooks and address inadequacies in the sector when allocating resources in 2022 and beyond.
GNA