Investing in newborn care initiatives, UNICEF partners others
The death of a baby before his or her first birthday is called infant mortality. This loss remains a sad reality for the affected families, as it takes a serious toll on their health and well-being.
Advertisement
The rate of infant mortality is often used as an indicator to measure the health and well-being of a nation, because factors affecting the health of an entire population can also impact the mortality rate of infants.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one newborn child dies every 15 minutes in Ghana with 90 babies dying every day within the first month of their lives.
Causes of death
The UN body attributes the major causes of these deaths to a number of factors, including premature births, infections and complications during and just after delivery, but maintains that basic knowledge, tools and equipment and simple care practices can reduce at least two-thirds of these deaths.
It said three out of the four children who died each hour could be saved through simple, effective and low-cost interventions, describing the deaths as ‘unnecessary.’
According to the UN body, the number of deaths could be largely reduced with proven low-cost interventions such as basic knowledge, tools and equipment and simple care practices. Others include keeping the baby warm, early initiation of breastfeeding at birth, exclusive breastfeeding, timely management of infections and hygienic umbilical cord care.
To achieve this, UNICEF contends that the country’s healthcare system needs to be strengthened so that it could respond promptly, effectively and efficiently to the needs of sick newborns, including through community-based and outreach activities.
The organisation works closely with the Government of Ghana, other United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations, civil society, the private sector, communities and donors to develop innovative solutions to major challenges confronting children.
Other Trending Stories
UNICEF Ghana is also working closely with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other partners to reduce infant mortality in the country, and this is being done through the strengthening of health systems (through the adoption of strategies, protocol and guidelines), training of healthcare providers and community volunteers, provision of newborn care equipment and the setting up of newborn units and corners in a number of health facilities (hospitals and health centres), as well as strengthening referral systems for newborns who are ill or born with complications.
Collaborative relationships
The main objective of UNICEF’s partnership and collaborative relationships with the private sector in Ghana is to advocate for child rights, and to leverage increased resources for child rights interventions through the promotion of public-private partnerships. The organisation maintains that in Ghana, the private sector can make a real difference to the lives of children, many of whom are living in poverty and deprivation.
Consequently, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC)/UNICEF second meeting of the “Coalition for Children”, a community of key individuals, private sector influencers and leading companies was held in Accra to bring corporate Ghana together to discuss ways of getting the private sector involved to invest in its children.
During discussions, UNICEF drew attention to the fact that there was a large number of health facilities in the country, that lacked equipment to manage newborn illnesses and prevent infant mortality, indicating that corporate Ghana’s support and assistance in equipping these health facilities with newborn care units, would go a long way to save the lives of sick newborn babies.
Newborn care initiatives
The organisation, therefore, offered what it described as “a variety of newborn care initiatives that could be supported by the private sector, with a range of contributions” from private sector companies and individuals, who will partner with UNICEF and invest in improving the situation of newborn care in Ghana.
These are: Raising $70,000 to equip a district hospital comprehensively with a newborn unit; equipping a district hospital with a newborn unit for $33,000; spending $5,000 to educate families in a whole district about how to look after their newborns and investing $300 to train a healthcare worker in newborn care.
The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) has indicated its interest and commitment to support the Newborn Care in Ghana initiative and the company is to initiate various fund-raising activities to support the initiative.
According to the the Managing Director of GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, would, through these, raise funds in support of the initiative by UNICEF, to equip a district hospital comprehensively with a newborn unit.