The acting Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Dennia Gayle wants government to shun the false sense of achievement and work hard to improve the living standards of Ghanaians.
According to her government is mostly quick to tout small successes it achieves in maternal health by comparing itself to other poorly performing countries in the sub-region.
Speaking to Citi News, the outgoing deputy UNFPA boss said the nation cannot afford to be complacent since all is not well yet.
“If we still have 30% of women who want to avoid or delay pregnancy and they cannot do so because there is no access to contraceptive, we cannot be complacent about that. If we have 380 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births we cannot be complacent about that.
“What it means is that we have to step up our game and it means that there are other countries in the world, where these issues are not a problem so we had to be looking, what are some of the things these countries are doing that we can learn from rather than saying I am good because in the league where I am right now I am the best.”
Aside challenges with maternal health, Ghana has been battling with various economic challenges including huge budget deficit, inflation rate, energy crisis among others for some time now.
The current economic crisis has forced the country to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.
Government recently also issued its fourth Eurobond which will be used to refinance maturing domestic debts.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana