Kumasi, Jan. 4, GNA- Mr. Akwasi Boakye-Yiadom, Director of Programmes of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana PPAG), has said that lack of funds and Reproductive Health (RH) supplies were some of the problems militating against Reproductive Health in the country. He has therefore urged the government and organizations to commit adequate funds towards Reproductive Health to help reduce maternal deaths, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and improve the health status of women.

Mr. Boakye-Yiadom was speaking at the pre-implementation meeting on Project Resource Mobilization Awareness in Kumasi at the week-end. The meeting, jointly organized by the PPAG and the Environmental Protection Association of Ghana (EPAG) and attended by over 25 participants aimed at advocating for the integrating of RH supplies in the distribution of chain of medical supplies.

It was also to advocate for explicit and realistic budget line for RH supplies including contraceptives to improve Family Planning Programme. He cited an instance where the number of Community Based Agents (CBA's) of the PPAG who were over 1,000 all over the country had been reduced drastically and attributed this to lack of funds towards promoting RH Mr Boakye-Yiadom said some donor countries had over the years supported RH and Family Planning Programme and called on the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to provide funds towards such programmes.

The Director of Programmes appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority to include contraceptives in the list of drugs in the National Health Insurance Scheme to promote RH and Family Planning in the country.

He advised the participants to play advocacy roles to enable the government and others commit resources towards Reproductive Health in the country.

Mr John Kwadwo Owusu, Executive Director of EPAG said the organization aims at improving the lives of people through environmental and health programmes, advocacy on gender, governance and others. He noted that shortage of RH supplies was among the problems undermining progress towards achieving the poverty reduction level targets under the Millennium Development Goals and the International Conference on Population and Development's Programme of Action and hoped that effective measures would be taken to address such problem. The Executive Director appealed to the media to highlight on issues to promote Reproductive Health in the country. 04 Jan. 08