The people of Ghana are to benefit from two new health sector projects following the World Bank's approval of assistance totalling $40 million, last week.

The $15 million Health Insurance Project and the $25 million Nutrition and Malaria Control for Child Survival Project are aimed at improving Ghana's health sector especially in child health.

According to Evelyn Awittor, a Health Sector Specialist in the World Bank's Ghana office, the two new projects are strategic in the realisation of the goals of Ghana's Health Sector Policy.

She said it was their hope that all efforts would be made to implement the projects without delays to ensure improvements especially in child health.

Health insurance was part of a broader policy to provide better access to health care, especially for the poor, and to improve financial sustainability of the health system.

The beneficiaries of the Health Insurance Project include:

* the National Health Insurance Council;

* the District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes which will have streamlined mechanisms for local level administration;

* the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration, the Kofi Annan Centre for Information Technology and other training centres which will provide training in executive leadership, management and information technology.

The Nutrition and Malaria Control for Child Survival Project will focus on outcomes linked to child survival such as nutrition and malarial prevention.

The project will also scale up strategies of community mobilisation and communication as a means of building capacity for basic health and nutrition service delivery at the community level.

The Nutrition and Malaria Control for Child Survival Project aims to:

* improve utilisation of selected community-based health and nutrition services for children under the age of two and pregnant women in the selected districts;

* strengthen institutional capacity of relevant institutions to deliver services at all levels;

* to create demand for and expand community-based delivery of selected health and nutrition services;

* promote the utilisation of insecticide-treated nets for malaria prevention.

Despite the health sector's general improvement over the past two decades, boosted particularly by the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), there remains a great deal to be done before the country can be given a clean bill of health.

In Ghana's Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) and the new Health Policy, 2006, the Ghanaian government outlined a number of critical steps to be taken to improve the health of the nation.

Development partners are ready and willing to support Ghana in this drive.

The sector-wide approach adopted by Ghana and her development partners in harmonising and organising assistance to the sector over the past decade is seen as global best practice.

The World Bank's assistance to Ghana's health sector, through the International Development Association (IDA), has increased over the past 10 years, and more than $160 million has already been paid out for various health related projects including HIV and AIDS.

Ghana has, however, enjoyed sustained economic growth in recent years.

According to a recent Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) report released by the Ghana Statistical Service, poverty indicators show a remarkable improvement, down to 28.5 percent in 2005/06, from 39.5 percent in 1998 and 51.7 percent in 1991.