The Minister for Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has launched the National Health Promotion Strategy 2022-2026, at the second Ghana Health Service, Senior Managers’ Meeting, in Accra.
The theme of the meeting, “Promoting healthcare, planning for healthy lives: where healthcare systems meet healthy behaviours”, was in resonance of the theme with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 which states “Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Wellbeing for All at All Ages” and which suggests that the Ghana Health Service is determined not only to achieve the health sector goals but also to project Ghana among countries that value the global goals.
The Health Promotion Strategy 2022-2026, will improve the quality of health promotion services at all levels, improve the health of communities in Ghana and increase collaboration and partnerships for health service provision.
Hon. Agyeman-Manu, in his keynote address, stated that “The ability and leadership of the Ghana Health Service to coordinate the development of this meeting and the launch of the National Health Promotion Strategy 2022-2026 is a major step towards ensuring we have a roadmap to realize the integration of demand generation, behavior change, and health service delivery. It is these essential elements that, when effectively planned and implemented, see measurable improvements in key health indicators and a healthier society.”
At the meeting, the Director of the Health Promotion Division, Dr. Aboagye DaCosta, stated that the strategy will seek to build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills and reorient health services.”
He also expanded on the purpose of the strategy, being to inform Ghanaians on how to stay healthy and to support the initiatives in the community that influence health and wellbeing. He remarked that this would increase the ability of Ghanaians to increase control over and improve their health, involve the population in the context of their everyday lives, and drives activities that are geared toward promoting health and preventing ill-health rather than focusing on people at risk for specific diseases