L’ Initiative conducted a joint mission with the Global Fund and France Team to support Ghana in its fight against pandemics and strengthen its ties with civil society organizations and local partners. This mission was marked by the official launch of two projects: the first one led by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the second—an operational research project led by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
At the end of April, L’ Initiative organized a joint mission with the Regional Health Adviser and the Global Fund’s country team in order to further develop its portfolio in the country in synergy with other French actors, the French Embassy, AFD, and IRD. During this week, both within the CCM (Country Coordinating Mechanism) and with the main recipients of the Global Fund or civil society, L’ Initiative took advantage of the encounters to better understand the needs that would improve the performance of the actors supported by the Global Fund in the fight against pandemics. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has supported Ghana since 2002; in total, more than US$1.2 billion has been signed with this country in the last twenty years. This mission allowed the meeting of CSOs with key and vulnerable populations in Ghana.
L’Initiative in Ghana
Ghana and L’Initiative have seen their collaboration strengthened in recent years, with about half a million euros in technical assistance, including €300,000 dedicated to preparing for the next Global Fund funding cycle (2024-2026) and €4.1 million for two flagship projects led by the Ghana Health Service and Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
1/ Strengthening access to health services for most vulnerable or marginalized people
Organism of the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service (GHS), deploys national and regional interventions that aim to strengthen access to health services for the most vulnerable or marginalized people. The project, funded by L’Initiative with GHS, aims to strengthen the Ghana health system by scaling up community scorecards, which have been in place since 2018, but which L’Initiative’s support will allow the extension of to the whole country.
This project aims to enhance the role of patients within the healthcare system and improve the quality of services provided to them. The beneficiaries are members of the Community Health Management Committees (CHMC), District/Sub-District Health Committees, and indirectly, all users of the Ghana health system.
To date, the grant awarded for a period of 4 years of an amount of 2,830,258.83 euros represents the largest envelope ever allocated to a project by L’Initiative since its creation in 2011.
2/ Integrating cervical cancer screening into routine care for women living with HIV
Dependent of the Noguchi University, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research was selected in 2022 by L’ Initiative for an Operational Research project on secondary prevention of Cervical Cancer (CC) among women living with HIV. In Ghana, WHO estimates the incidence of cervical cancer at 29/100,000, four times that of the US, and mortality at 28/100,000, approximately 10 times that of the US. It is estimated that there were 342,307 people living with HIV in Ghana in 2019, and more than 64% of them (219,986) were women. Most of them (>90%) are between 15 and 49 years of age (the period predominantly associated with cervical cancer), yet they are not systematically tested for CC.
The challenge of the project is to determine how cervical cancer screening could be integrated into routine care for women living with HIV in Ghana (HIV clinics). The beneficiaries will be women living with HIV, and the budget committed by L’Initiative is 1.35 million euros.
>> Visit the CCM Ghana website.
