By Philip Tengzu
Wa, Jan. 26, GNA – The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has held the Country Coordinating Mechanism’s (CCM) Regional Dialogue Meeting in the Upper West Region to solicit inputs from stakeholders towards the development of Ghana’s grant proposal to secure funding from the Global Fund.
The Global Fund had allocated US$234,047,997.00 in funding to Ghana for the 2024 – 2026 application year to help fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria.
Speaking at the meeting in Wa, Mr Dramani Yakubu, the Upper West Regional Technical Coordinator of the GAC, said the meeting was to enable the CCM engage governmental and non-governmental agencies, Academia, and Traditional Authority among others on the grant application.
He explained that similar engagements had been held with key populations and other vulnerable groups in the region to also solicit their inputs into the proposal.
He said the CCM regional dialogue meetings, which would take place in all the 16 regions in the country, would culminate in a national dialogue in Accra before the grant proposal was finalised.
Mr Yakubu indicated that the Global Fund was established about two decades ago by the United Nations under the leadership of the late Kofi Anan, a former UN Secretary General as part of efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, especially in developing countries.
“The Global Fund was established to attract, manage, and disburse resources through a new public-private partnership to sustain and contribute to the reduction of infections, illness, and death caused by HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria globally.
The Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) was founded alongside the Global Fund to be responsible for developing grant proposals, overseeing effective implementation of approved grants, monitoring progress towards meeting set targets, and reviewing programme performance”, he explained.
Mr Jonathan Tetteh-Kwao Teye, a representative of the CCM team, observed that the CCM was mandated to, among other things, engage stakeholders on national programme priorities, allocation, and utilisation of financial resources for the development of grant proposals.
He made presentations on the HIV Portfolio Analysis including the key national HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB data, an overview of the current New Funding Model (NFM3) grant, and an outline for NFM4 preparations to guide the participants in their deliberation.
The participants were grouped into three after the presentations to deliberate on what was working well under the NFM3, the gaps that needed to be filled, and to suggest effective, efficient, and innovative solutions on how Ghana could achieve health-related Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
One group was tasked to discuss issues related to HIV/AIDS and TB, another group to deal with Malaria, and the third group to also handle community and health systems strengthening.
The regional office of the Ghana AIDS Commission was also charged to collate all the ideas and inputs from the stakeholders into a comprehensive report for CCM’s consideration.
Representatives from Civil Society Organisations, Ghana Health Service, Academia, Security Services, traditional authorities, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies among others attended the meeting.
GNA