Accra, Sept. 2, GNA - Ghana and many other African countries would find it difficult in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health targets due to weak health systems and infrastructure, Dr Gladys Norley Ashitey, a Deputy Minister of Health, said on Tuesday. She noted that the MDGs could only be achieved if innovation and capacity development to generate, review and implement appropriate interventions were enforced.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day final health research dissemination meeting in Accra, the Deputy Health Minister said developing countries had not accorded health research as a priority in policy development and health planning activities. "Health problems are sometimes so urgent and of such dimension that implementing interventions with half the required information in many instances seem the most logical approach," she added. The five-year research programme, in support of Medium Term Health Strategy from 2001 to 2005, was a Ghanaian-Dutch collaboration health research development designed for a new innovative partnership. The partnership sponsored 73 research projects over five years with thematic areas, including health financing, quality health care, health communication and decentralization.

Researchers were from the academia, heath service and non-governmental organizations whose voices were paramount in the setting of the research agenda. Dr. Ashitey noted that there was the need to develop the evidence base for generating well-thought and appropriate health policies that would focus on real needs and challenges taking into consideration the cultures and realities of the times. "We need policies that will deliver through prevention, nutrition and the enhancement of the individual's capacity to make healthier life choices no matter his or her socio-economic circumstances." She called for stakeholders in the health sector to work towards strengthening health systems to be more responsive to the challenges in the areas of access, quality and effectiveness in the delivery of health services to the people.

Dr Ashitey called for continuous review of health policies and urged stakeholders to work towards strengthening and reorienting health systems to enable them to perform effectively under severe resource limitations.

"In this regard, the link between health research and the development of health policy, planning and service delivery will remain critical and we must increase investments in health research." Professor Jan Pronk, former Minister of Development Cooperation, The Netherlands, said development was a process with different approaches which had no end.

He called on stakeholders in the health sector to be development oriented, adopt participatory and button-up approaches to allow the involvement of the people concerned and translate changes into improvement of problems. Dr. John Gyapong, Director of the Health Research Unit of Ghana Health Service, said the Ghanaian-Dutch collaboration in research was to bridge the gap between research and policy and make health research more relevant for development purposes. He explained that the partnership arrangements allowed the participation of Dutch researchers to complement the expertise of their Ghanaian counterparts. "This research partnership has broken the ground in making health research more responsive to national development needs and in enhancing and sustaining national capacities for the design, implementation and management of essential national health research." Dr Gyapong noted that research was poorly funded and urged government and other African leaders to be committed to prioritize and fund research from their own resources before seeking support from outside.

He expressed regret that the Abuja Declaration which requested African Ministers to allocate at least two per cent of the health budget to funding research had not been implemented, adding Ghana had made some attempts to operationalize the declaration but had been met with many challenges.

Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, who presided commended the Dutch government for the support and collaboration in improving the research and health of Ghanaians. He urged governments in Africa to enforce the Abuja Declaration, which bound them of committing two per cent of their health budget in funding research. 2 Sept. 08