A brief history of UNFPA assistance to Ghana

UNFPA assistance to Ghana began in the early 1970s through special projects administered by UNDP. By the end of 1984, UNFPA had funded 12 projects in the country totalling $2.4 million.
In 1985, UNFPA opened its Ghana Field Office in Accra headed by a Programme Development Adviser and later by a Country Director. In June 1985, the Governing Council approved Ghana’s first Country Programme (CP1) in the amount of $3.7 million for a period of five years (1985 - 1989). Under this programme the priority areas indicated were:

• Maternal and child health, and family planning programme;
• Population policy formulation and implementation;
• Population and family life education and communication;
• Basic data collection and analysis; and
• The strengthening of the capacity of the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) to fully integrate women into the development process of the country.

The second comprehensive programme of assistance (CP2) for Ghana was approved in 1990 in the amount of $10 million for the period 1991 – 1995. Under this programme, UNFPA assistance was used to support the improvement of Government’s capacity to extend the coverage and effectiveness of maternal and child health, and family planning (MCH/FP), and information, education and communication (IEC) activities to redress rural/urban disparities in the knowledge, attitudes and practice of modern contraceptive methods.

The Third Cycle of assistance in the amount of $25 million to the Government of Ghana for the 1996 – 2000 period coincided with the Medium Term Development Programme (MTDP) time frame.  The MTDP supported overall national goals to ensure the achievement and maintenance of population growth consistent with economic growth, in order to enhance the quality of life of Ghanaians. It also enabled Ghana to consolidate current gains in meeting the challenges of its population policy – revised in 1994 to reflect the ICPD goals namely: Reducing High Fertility, Infant and Maternal Mortality Rates, Strengthening Integration of Population Factors into Development Plans and Policies and Reproductive Health at all levels.

The Fourth Country Programme (CP4) in the amount of $25.3 million had two main sub-programmes namely: the Reproductive Health, and Population and Development Sub-Programmes with Gender and Advocacy as cross-cutting dimensions. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health was a special component of the Reproductive Health sub-programme and was implemented through the African Youth Alliance (AYA) project. The programme was focused in the three northern regions with the view to narrowing the prevailing development gap between the northern and southern sectors of the country. A reproductive health project funded by the European Commission is still on-going in the Central Region focused on improving maternal health services.