Campaign To Register More On NHIS Begins In Gonjaland

Healthcare delivery is key in Ghana’s forward development but the mountainous cases such as malaria, diarrhoea, maternal and infant related diseases among others still being recorded in health facilities in the Northern Region, are thwarting the campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 which is a concern to many stakeholders in the health sector.

Officials at the Ghana Health Service and the Coalition for Development of Western Corridor of Northern Region (NORTHCODE) for instance, have observed that many people in some four Districts in Gonjaland were not registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). 

In fact, whereas some did not see the need to renew their cards after it had expired, others particularly the vulnerable (aged) and pregnant women including their children below 18 did not know that they were exempted from paying for renewals of their NHIS Cards or registering for it. Also, in some extreme circumstances some poor people did not have the money to renew their NHIS Cards to enable them benefit when they go to hospital for medical care.

In view of the aforementioned, NORTHCODE with funding support from STAR-Ghana, a donor organization, has begun implementation of a two-year project dubbed: “Western Corridor Improved Health Insurance and Healthcare Delivery”, with focus to enhance NHIS and CHPS Compounds patronage in the four Districts ( West Gonja/North Gonja, Central Gonja, Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba).

Speaking at a capacity building workshop in Damongo, the Coordinator of NORTHCODE Cletus Zume, said NORTHCODE was a coalition of four non-governmental organizations in the four districts established with the objective of harnessing strengths, abilities, capacities and energies to support various communities to access the basic necessities of life such as good healthcare delivery, education, economic empowerment of women and also protecting the environment.

The coalition, he disclosed, consisted of Centre for Women Opportunities (CENWOPP) in Damongo, Kachito Community Development Centre in Buipe, Tuna Women Development Programme (TUWODEP) in Tuna and Partners in Participatory Development (PAPADEV) in Bole.

According to Mr. Zume who is also the Executive Director of CENWOPP, implementing organization of the NORTHCODE project, the project was also implemented in partnership with the four District Health Insurance Schemes and their District Health Management Teams (DHMTs).

The objective of the project, he further expatiated, was to advocate for more people to enrol onto the NHIS as well as encourage people to patronize the services of CHPS Compounds –community health posts, and other health centres especially in the rural communities. “As at now, we are implementing this project in 40 communities in the 4 districts”, he added. 

The workshop at Damongo was therefore, to train 200 community NHIS volunteers and DHMTs to empower them to know their roles and responsibilities and also enable them to enhance the lives of community members by educating them on the essence of having an NHIS card and for that matter, an active one of course to enable them access healthcare, Mr. Zume emphasised.

The West Gonja District NHIS Manager John Kaara Kipo in an interview with this blogger on the sidelines of the workshop, stressed that CHPS Compounds were very significant in healthcare delivery at the community level, because they were the first port of call during emergencies before any referrals were made to the District or Regional Hospitals, that is, if the emergencies were complicated.

He disclosed that, the district had so far registered over 79,000 people with the NHIS but renewal of cards by patrons was very poor and attributed the problem to several reasons including the fact that, a new district had been carved out of the West Gonja District (North Gonja), people leaving the district to other places, poverty and among others.

Meanwhile, there were only 6 CHPS Compounds in the entire district according to Dr. Chrysantus Kubio, West Gonja Director of Health Services. He told this blogger that, ideally a CHPS Compound should have a midwife, road worthy vehicle (motorbike), water and registers for records keeping, but these were lacking thus posing challenges to efficient healthcare delivery.

Dr. Kubio indicated that, although the district had chalked success in the area of maternal health with no record of deaths in recent times, malaria was still high as records showed about 50 percent cases of out-patient-department (OPD) being recorded.

Journalists Receive Training On Gender, Human Rights Reporting

Ms. Evelyn Nuvor

In recent times, media reports have shown that issues bordering on the economic development of women and young girls  especially domestic violence, witchcraft allegations, widowhood rites, female genital mutilation, rape, defilement and forced marriages among others, are more rife than before.

The question however asked is, are journalists now reporting on women’s rights issues more than previously or there are more of such issues now than before? What about the argument that, journalists are merely reporting more on such issues without any form of public education on the consequences of perpetuating such abuses perhaps, as a result of practitioners lack of adequate knowledge in reporting on gender and human rights.

The aforementioned, including many others are the reasons why the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre [Gender Centre] under its “Women in Leadership” project, organized a three-day capacity building workshop for a select number of twenty six media personnel from the Upper East, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra Regions.

The workshop was aimed at enhancing the knowledge of journalists made up of senior reporters and editors to better understand gender and human rights issues very well and communicate them appropriately to the general public through their news reportage and on-air talkshow programmes on television and radio in order to effect positive change.  

The programme which started on Wednesday 17^th July in Accra and is expected to end on Friday, July 19, would equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills on issues on the rights of women in order to ensure effective and better reporting on such issues.

The Programme Manager of the Gender Centre, Ms. Evelyn Nuvor, said the low participation and representation of women in governance processes and structures in Ghana was well established as their political decision-making from the district to the national levels could best be described as fragile. 

Participants at workshop

Buttressing her arguments with some statistics, she said since the introduction of the 1992 Constitution and successive general elections that followed, women won 16 (8%) out of 200 seats in 1992 whereas in 1996, women won 18 (9%) out of 200 seats with a marginal increase of 5%.

Though when the number of seats in parliament increased from 200 to 230 in 2004, she noted that women, could only account for 25 (10.5%) out of 230 seats and a regrettable reduction from 25 seats (10.5%) to 19 (8.3%) in 2008. 

Ms. Nuvor provided similar statistics for that of women’s representation at the District Assemblies level and stated that it was in attempts to address these disturbing trends that, the Gender Centre sourced funding from the Dutch Government through Womankind-UK to implement a 4-year [2012 – 2016] project on Women’s participation in politics and public decision-making processes. 

The expected results of the project according to her, included improved accountability of decision-making structures to their (women) constituents; increased numbers of women actively and effectively participating in decision making structures at national and local levels; and increased capacity of women to advocate for their needs at local and national levels.

The expected output of the project was also to see; increased capacity of women to advocate for their needs and proposals at the local level; women leaders demonstrate improved responsiveness and push for increased accountability to the female constituents and increased opportunities for women’s participation in protecting and promoting women’s rights and development.

Meanwhile, the project is being implemented in three districts - Atwima Mponua, Wenchi and Dangme East Municipalities. It has activities such as leadership training and mentoring programme for 45 [15 women per district], leadership training and mentoring programme for 60 young women in 2 universities and Senior High Schools and training for media practitioners.

Some of the topics being treated at the Accra training programme include; understanding gender, impact of socialization and gender roles, stereotypes, patriarchy, power and women, understanding women’s human rights, discrimination versus gender equality, international treaties, Ghana’s Constitution and international treaties.

Ghana Urged to Step Up Rights Protection Amid Economic Boom

Ghana needs to prepare its economy, society and institutions to ensure its expanding economy does not undermine human rights protection, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has cautioned.

Dr. Alexandra Guaqueta

“Rapid economic growth can pose big challenges for protecting rights,” said Working Group member Alexandra Guáqueta at the end of a 10-day official visit to Ghana. “National and foreign investors need to demonstrate greater respect for human rights as they participate in Ghana’s growth,” she added.

Ms Guáqueta and fellow expert Pavel Sulyandziga urged the Ghanaian Government to ensure that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were at the heart of the new policy on corporate social responsibility being developed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The principles should also guide the work of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Ghana Free Zones Board, and be incorporated in Ghana’s trade and investment agreements. 

“Ghana should build on its successful investment in modern institutions for trade promotion and investment to ensure that other key institutions dealing with business, such as the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Judiciary, have the necessary resources and training to provide effective oversight,” said Mr. Sulyandziga.

The Working Group experts said Ghana had a relatively strong legal framework in place to protect rights. However, laws and regulations on child labour, health and safety, working hours and employment discrimination against women are often not effectively implemented by businesses nor enforced by authorities. People, particularly in rural areas and the informal sector, faced practical obstacles in getting effective remedy through the justice system, the experts noted.  

In Ghana’s cocoa sector, the Working Group saw evidence that reducing the worst forms of child labour is possible. The experts visited two cocoa-farming communities, where people are involved in devising concrete measures to protect children, including access to education. These have been complemented with training to increase food security and generate cash crops. Such supply-chain initiatives have been made possible by the collective efforts of international chocolate brands and buyers, the Government, the International Labour Organization and donors. The Working Group also heard of Government efforts to reduce human trafficking and child labour in the fishing industry, with the support of the International Organization for Migration.

“Now industry and the Government must go further, learn from these positive community initiatives, and scale up their action to the cocoa sector at large. The positive lessons from the cocoa industry should also inform existing efforts in other sectors where children’s rights are at risk, such as fishing and artisanal mining,” said Mr. Sulyandziga.

The Working Group saw the mining industry’s efforts to address its impact on communities, deriving from environmental pollution, land acquisition and resettlement from both past and more current operations.

“Both mining companies and the Government have a clear responsibility to address legacy issues that infringe on access to both clean water and land. This is especially important given the complex nature of land ownership and tenure in Ghana,” said Mr Sulyandziga. “The Government and companies, while recognizing existing customs and traditions, must ensure that all community members are fully informed about  proposed projects and are consulted, and are part of decision-making processes that affect them, including on prevention, mitigation and compensation of any negative effects.”

The experts also saw evidence of child labour in illegal small-scale mining operations, which also cause environmental damage and water pollution that directly affect communities and people’s livelihoods. The President has set up a Government Task Force to address the multiple adverse consequences of this activity.

“Both the Government and the gold industry have a responsibility to ensure that human and labour rights considerations are integrated in their response,” said Ms. Guáqueta.

The solution to the problem of illegal mining, she said, included improved monitoring to cover relevant small-scale mining zones, technical capacity on human rights and environmental standards for those who want to follow the rules, and efficient policing

 “Integrating human rights will also be important regarding the use of public security forces in the response of the Government, and Ghana should consider joining the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights,” Ms Guáqueta added.

During their visit, the Working Group experts had meetings in Accra, and in Ashanti and Central regions. The Working Group will present detailed observations and recommendations from the visit in a report to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2014.

Adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provide the first authoritative global standard to prevent and address adverse impacts on human rights of business activities.

The Working Group was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2011. The five members are Mr. Michael Addo, Ms. Alexandra Guáqueta, Ms. Margaret Jungk, Mr. Puvan Selvanathan and Mr. Pavel Sulyandziga (current Chairperson-Rapporteur). The Working Group is independent from any government or organization. It reports to the Human Rights Council and to the UN General Assembly.

Biotech: Scientists Disprove Any Risk But Journalists Doubt

The question is often asked, what is biotechnology and has it got any advantages and disadvantages especially to humans in modern day’s scientific experiments? These questions are rife because, every year the world’s population grows by 73 million people and expected to hit 9.2 billion by 2050. 1 billion of the world’s population is currently afflicted by hunger, malnutrition and poverty, and agricultural production will need to double in the next 25 years due to increasing less availability of arable lands for farming.

So, how can governments, world leaders, scientists as well as agricultural researchers effectively overcome or resolve the aforementioned challenges with cost effective or less risky solutions without necessarily exacerbating or impairing the condition of all life forms on this earth?

The solution to these challenges scientists, global leaders, governments and agricultural researchers think, is by the power of biotechnology [Simply put, it is the use of living organism, or their parts, to produce new products] notwithstanding the fact that many people including journalists, non-governmental organizations and even some scientists cast doubts over the usage of this technology to address these challenges.

The debate is on and so, the Regional Environmental Office of the United States Embassy, Ghana, has organized a roundtable/symposium in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana on biotechnology commonly referred to as Genetically Modified Organisms [GMOs].

The programme was designed with the intention to promote open dialogue between prominent biotechnology skeptics from non-governmental organizations, the media, the private sector as well as Western and African biotechnology experts. The goal of the workshop was, therefore, to foster trust, understanding and a better working relationship between the two sides [scientists and the rest] and to promote clearer communication. 

Prof. Richard Akromah

Making a presentation on the overview of biotechnology, Professor Richard Akromah, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology [KNUST], said biotechnology existed several centuries ago until recently when the process was modernized by scientists to advance inventions in the fields of biology, zoology and chemistry [manufacturing human consumables]. 

According to him, biotechnology was very effective and cheap in its application through crop cultivation/plant breeding, animals breeding, manufacturing of food products and among others, as it made it possible to avert the worsening hunger and malnutrition problems that had beset many countries of the world.

In simple language, he said one should just consider vegetables with a built-in herbicide, or grains containing mega-vitamins, or maybe harvesting decaffeinated coffee directly from the tree. He explained that, all of these biotechnologically enhanced plant foods have been created to improve, change or dramatically enhance the natural genetic makeup of these plants. Adding, he noted that, while farmers had been altering the makeup of plants for hundreds of years through cross-breeding and selective planting, scientists had been quietly engineering human food sources since the early 20^th century and actively and openly using GMOs since the mid-1990s.

Prof. Akromah who is also a senior lecturer in Plant Breeding and Genetics for the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences of KNUST further expatiated, that through biotechnology a one acre of land would be enough to cultivate and harvest several bags of maize due to the high yielding potential the seeds had.

He also stated that, biotechnology crop plants did not need too much fertilizer, pesticide and weedicide or herbicide application when used by a farmer, stressing that produce harvested were often subjected to rigorous scientific test that made it impossible to have any side effects on humans when eventually consumed.

However, some journalists and other participants at the symposium disagreed and argued that, they believed the increasing rate of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, kidney failures, childhood cancers, hypertension, hole-in-hear in children and others currently being recorded in the nation’s hospitals were as a result of the consumption of biotechnology foods and medicines which were imported into Ghana.

They questioned why biotechnology or GMO foods had been rated risk free or perceived not to have any side effects on humans, stressing that that could not be possible, because in their estimation there was no food that had no side effect when taken over a long period of time and challenged scientists to come clear with convincing evidence to support their claim as well as calm down the fears people have in eating GMO foods.

For instance, chromosomes, genes and DNA are the foundation of genetic engineering and the science of biotechnology. In the human cell, genes contain the blueprint for such human traits as eye color and height. Similar to humans, plants and other organisms also contained DNA that distinguished specific traits. By taking DNA from one organism and transferring it into another, scientists were, in effect, able to keep the best traits of both organisms. The controversy lay in the fact that DNA from dissimilar organisms was being transferred freely without the knowledge of long-term consequences.

Using biotechnology in the growth and production of fruits and vegetables had enabled scientists to change the way they ripen. Normally fruits and vegetables continue to ripen after harvesting; they must be rushed to market and sold quickly while they were fresh. GMO produce could be harvested when ripe, and the ripening process stops, giving them a longer shelf life. These genetic modifications also increased a plant's resistance to disease, pests, insecticides, herbicides and even extreme weather conditions. Genetic engineering also altered a plant's nutritional makeup, making it richer in certain vitamins or minerals.

However, despite harvesting thousands of genetically modified plants, scientists still did not have a clear understanding of how these genetic changes affected the human body in a long term, primarily because these food plants had only been available since the early 1990s. 

Monsanto, the largest GMO seed developer in the world and the organization that provided a majority of the research results to the American Food and Drug Administration, said GMO seed was harmless to humans. However, some scientists had found that GMO plants had indeed altered the life span, disease process and cognitive abilities of insects that fed on these plants. Thus, research was ongoing, according to latest reports on science related website www.livestrong.com.

Meanwhile, as it stands now, the choice of eating biotechnology or GMO foods lay in the hands of every individual to decide whether he/she would prefer organic products or GMO products that range from imported rice, biscuits, cheese, antibiotics, cotton seed oil and among others brought into the country.