Media urged to focus on issues critical to national development

Kumasi (Ash), Nov. 26, GNA - Dr Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services, has urged the media to focus on issues critical to national development rather than those that did not bring real meaning to people's lives.

He expressed concern that very important national issues that needed to be tackled and disseminated to help the populace make informed choices were rather shelved "for the sake of politics and sports".

Speaking at a day's zonal dissemination workshop on the final report of the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) in Kumasi, Dr Ibrahim implored media practitioners to help Ghanaians to become informed on issues that could help them to improve their living conditions. The workshop was jointly organised by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, and ICF International, a global professional services firm

which provided the financial and technical assistance for the survey through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The 90 participants included representatives of Ghana Health Service, National Population Council (NPC), the GSS and the media from the Eastern, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.

Topics treated included "Introduction to 2008 GDHS and Methodology, Key Findings of the GDHS, Characteristics of Households and Respondents". Other areas were Fertility, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition, Child Mortality, Malaria, Women's Empowerment and Domestic Violence, HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. Dr Ibrahim noted that if the media disseminated such crucial issues well, Ghanaians could learn and understand the policy implications of such health problems and contribute effectively towards their solution. "We need to use our education to influence public opinions and it is time for Ghanaians to help disseminate the findings in the survey in the churches, mosques, market places and homes so that our people will understand and contribute to national growth," he said. Dr Ibrahim expressed the hope that the participants, most of who were from the district level, would go back and divulge the findings of the survey at the grassroots level.

The 2008 GDHS, the fifth in the country, was designed to provide data for monitoring the population and health situation in Ghana. The survey also included testing of women and children for anaemia. A national representative sample of 11,778 households with 4,916 women aged 15-49 and 4,568 men aged 15-59 being interviewed, representing a response of 99 per cent for households, 97 per cent for women and 96 per cent for men.