Wa, July 10, GNA - Mr Mark Abugnaba, Upper West Regional Population Officer has urged the government to reverse the decline in funding for Family Planning (FP) activities by channelling more internal resources to invigorate population control programmes to accelerate national development.

He said the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme offered an opportunity for mobilizing internal resources to support the delivery of family planning services. He said this when he spoke on key challenges facing Family Planning in the country and the role of district assemblies in providing FP services at a one-day seminar organized by the National Population Council for stakeholders in the Region at Wa. Injection of more local resources into FP programmes, he pointed out would enable the government to become more self reliant and less dependent on donor assistance for such activities, although international assistance would in the short to long term remain a significant source of funding.

Steps should also be taken to strengthen and improve the coordination of international donor assistance to complement government's efforts, he added.

Mr. Abugnaba said decentralized governance has become a major element in Ghana's efforts at achieving a rapid socio-economic modernization towards attaining a middle income status. District Assemblies therefore have critical roles to play in promoting and financing family planning activities and ensuring that the local communities take ownership of FP programmes. The district assemblies, he stated, required assistance to strengthen their technical and management capacities, to integrate population issues in general and FP in particular into their regular development planning activities.

He said selected staff in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions had already been trained in that direction and this must be extended to all districts in the country.