The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has registered 9.5 milllon people from both the formal and informal sectors, representing 47 percent of the country's population. The Executive Secretary of the African Peer Review Mechanism-Governing Council (NAPRM-GC), Dr Francis Appiah, who made this known, said that a field survey conducted by his outfit showed that 76 percent of respondents indicated that there has been an improvement in access to health facilities. He said 63 percent of respondents indicated satisfaction with the quality of health services. Dr Appiah was speaking at a stakeholder validation workshop on this year's annual progress report on the NAPRM-GC in Takoradi. About 200 participants from the Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra regions attended the two-day workshop. The executive secretary, who presented the annual progress report on 'Democracy and Good Political Governance' and also on the 'Socio-Economic Development of the country', reported that more than 3,219 cases of guinea worm were reported throughout the country. He said rural water supply increased from 41 percent in 2001 to 55 percent in 2006, while more than a fifth of all households still relied on untreated sources of water. Dr Appiah said 54 percent of respondents indicated improvement in access to water and sanitation while 48 percent reported satisfaction in the quality of water and sanitation. On reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, he said 417 Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres, (VCT) and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission centres had been established in 138 districts, while 48 anti-retroviralsites were in operation. He said a comprehensive decentralisation policy had been prepared, explaining that the policy framework was to deepen political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation. Dr Appiah added that the Local Government Service Secretariat was now operational, adding that metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies had also increased from 138 to 166. Touching on child prostitution and pornography, Dr. Appiah noted that Ghana had not developed a plan on commercial sexual exploitation of children but a number of activities were in progress to address the situation. These activities, Dr Appiah said, included public education and sensitisation as well as prosecution under the criminal code. He also made reference to the National Youth Employment Programme and indicated that a total of 107,114 youth had been employed under the programme by August 2007. Dr Appiah commended the establishment of the community police but stated, however, that the employment and training of 908 community police personnel throughout the country was woefully inadequate. The Principal Programme Officer of NAPRM, Mr Samuel Cudjoe, who presented reports on 'Corporate Governance' as well as 'Economic Governance and Management', said there had been improved corporate-community relationships. He said many companies had supported a number of development projects in the communities such as health, education, capacity building and agriculture. However, he noted that the concept of corporate social responsibility was still not very well understood by some companies and communities. The Chairman of the NPRM-GC, Rev. Professor S.K. Adjepong, explained that the NAPRM was a people-centered process and added that people must participate at all stages of the process.

Source: Mirror