interest"-Dr Agongo

Koforidua, July 7, GNA - Dr Erasmus E.A. Agongo, the Eastern Regional Director, Ghana Health Service, on Tuesday acknowledged the contribution of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the health sector but said some exist to further their own parochial interest to the detriment of the society they purport to serve.

"Some CSOs mobilize funds and the funds are not put to the purpose for which they are mobilized for".

Dr Agongo, who was addressing a regional forum by the Ghana Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Health in Koforidua, said sometimes activities of the CSOs were carried out in such a manner that they would not have the desired effect. "We know of CSOs which claim to be on the ground meanwhile they are based in the big cities and only visit the communities in which their programmes are being implemented once a while".

He said in those instances, the advantage of the CSO being on the ground was completely lost.

Dr Abongo said some of the CSOs do not have the requisite expertise and yet they will go on to carry out a programme ill-prepared and without expertise.

He appealed to the Coalition to see it as their role to weed out the bad nuts amongst them whose action goes to tarnish their image. Dr Agongo urged the CSOs and the Coalition to operate within government policy framework, as they were set up to do and to police themselves in order that their operations would not be questioned. Mr James Boamah, Eastern Regional Chairman of Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, said the Coalition is a registered umbrella body of NGOs/CSOs and Networks in Health sector established in March 2000. Mr Boamah said their mission was to influence National Health Policy and also to collaborate with other stakeholders to empower member organizations to ensure Quality Health Care for all.