The National Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee for Health promotion (ICC-HP), has been reconstituted with Professor Audrey Gadzekpo of the School of Communications, University of Ghana as its new Chairperson.
The reconstituted Committee would among other functions, coordinate and harmonise the practice and activities of stakeholders providing health promotion services and activities to achieve consistency in messaging in the media.
It is also to strengthen, guide and advocates health promotion implementers as well as provide a strategic interface with relevant government agencies and other relevant health related bodies in Ghana.
It would promote the adoption and implementation of new health promotion policy and strategy, as well as advocate health promotion research.
Speaking at the inauguration, Prof Gadzekpo expressed her commitment in working to ensure the sustainability of the ICC-HP and make health promotion the pivot for assuring public health in Ghana.
“Health promotion requires effective advocacy to foster effective collaboration with stakeholders to work together to uplift the importance of health promotion in national development,” she said.
The ICC-HP, which was once established 2010 to promote health education for the protection of the people was fragmented with no systematic effort to coordinate and harness the resources of stakeholders in health promotion collapsed in 2013.
Dr George Amofa, former Deputy Director-General, Ghana Health Service who served as the consultant for the ICC-HP said the objective of the ICC would be to harness and coordinate the collective resources of all stakeholders in an advisory capacity to achieve the goal of improving the wellbeing and health of the people of Ghana.
He urged ICC members to provide leadership and vision to deepen the understanding and practice of health promotion in Ghana.
Mrs Kate Quashie, Head of the Nutrition Department, Ghana Health Service acknowledged the importance of health promotion in getting health messages across to the people of Ghana, hence, the partnership with WHO, UNICEF, USAID and fhi360 to revitalize the defunct ICC-HP.
Mr Kofi Adusei of the Ministry of Health’s Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Unit expressed the Ministry’s support to ensure that the ICC-HP work to impact positively on social and behavioural change of the people
Madam Salamatu Futa, Maternal and Health Specialist of USAID, Ms Surangani Abeyesekera, Communication for Development Specialist of UNICEF, jointly pledged their technical and financial support in ensuring that the reconstituted ICC-HP was sustained.
To them, advocacy is key in changing the behaviours and it is necessary for ICC-HP to ensure that quality health promotion is facilitated.
Mr Francis Dadzie, representative of Advertisers Association of Ghana and Mr Kwasi Owusu, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, pledged their continuous support to ICC-HP to achieve its outlined objectives.
Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere Chairman of the National Media Commission who chaired noted that the work of the health promotion staff could prevent many preventable illnesses related to nutrition, clan water supply, sanitation and immunisation.
To him, effective communication, advocacy and social mobilisation are the very essential tools for addressing the needs of the people.
He commended the Ghana Health service for seeing the need to reconstitute the ICC-HPP to address the multiplicity of health promotion actions by different stakeholders, which has led to duplication of efforts, and conflicting messaging on health issues.
