Pandemic management projects: Partners urged to leverage successes to build resilience

The implementing partners of two pandemic management projects have been advised to leverage on the successes chalked by the three-year project to build resilience for future pandemics.

Addressing the partners to officially bring the project to a close, Director, Africa Centre for Geo-Health, University of Ghana, Prof. Julius Fobil, said meeting the targets of the projects must not end there, underscoring the need to bolster health systems and safety protocols to better support and protect local communities.

“Our commitment should not end here. The partnership we have established will remain integral to sustain the resilience that we seek.

“Our shared responsibility is to maintain and build upon this foundation working and across sectors and ensure preparedness and support for all,” he said. 

Project

The two pandemic projects – COVID-19 comprehensive pandemic management for employees, families and communities and COVID-19 pandemic management in times of COVID-19 and beyond – commenced at the height of the pandemic.

The projects were funded the German development corporation’s (GIZ’s) develoPPP programme with nine other partners.

DeveloPPP is one of the programmes offered by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to promote collaboration with actors in the private sector.

The nine partners are Anglo Gold Ashanti (Iduapriem and Obuasi mines); Golden Exotics Limited; Blue Skies; Coca Cola Ghana; Appointed Time Printing (ATP); Golden Star; Asanko Gold Ghana and Kasapreko Company Limited.

The projects, among others sought to build business continuity plans, pandemic preparedness plans while ensuring that the catchment communities of the private partners were economically and health resilient.

Success

Sharing successes of the projects in the non-extractive sector, a technical advisor to the project, Yaya Souare, revealed that of the 700,000 people targeted, the project was able to reach 857,336 people.

In addition to that, 135, 227 people had their National Health Insurance Schemes registered/renewed between September 2021 and August 2024.

Again, he said under resistance against financial shocks, 504 people out of 684 people who took part in a baseline survey opened savings accounts while 329 of them opened other forms of insurance apart from health.

Mr Souare added that health literacy among 4,880 respondents also increased.

For the extractive sector, a technical advisor, Fred Darko Effah, of the 60,000 community members targeted, the project was able to register 82,920 people unto the NHIS.

Again, out of the 150,000 community members targeted, 275,747 of them received medical care.

For his part, the Team Lead, DeveloPPP Ghana, Dr Holger Till, emphasized the need for workers, and their families to be healthy adding, “A healthy worker is a productive worker”.

The key lesson learnt from the project he said was the concept of working together using private, public and civil society and development partners to drive success and ensure resilience.