Contribution of International Nongovernmental Organisations Towards Sustainable Health Promotion in the Northern Region of Ghana

The study assessed the contribution of international NGOs towards sustainable health promotion in the Northern Region. It has also investigated the level of collaboration and networking among the international NGOs working in the health sector in the Northern Region as well as the key intervention areas of the International NGOs health programmes and the problems affecting their health programmes implementation among others. The Northern Region is plagued with a myriad of health hazards such as Guinea Worm, upper respiratory tract diseases, diarrhoeal diseases and malaria among others. Malaria has been the number one killer disease and the most prevalent in the region. Another major problem of health in the region is malnutrition, which contributes greatly to infant mortality. Consequently, there have been several attempts, initiatives and collaborative efforts of NGOs in the past decade toward health promotion in the Northern Region. The literature on health promotion in the Northern Region showed that the private sector especially the Mission and NGOs are more innovative in providing health services with community involvement. Both primary data comprising field survey (Questionnaire and key informants interviews) and secondary data principally obtained from reviews of the annual reports of the studied NGOs were employed to investigate the set objectives of the study. Six randomly selected international NGOs operating in the health sector of the Northern Region namely, Action Aid Ghana, World Vision, Action for Disability and Development, Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, Christian Children's Fund of Canada and Adventist Development and Relief Agency were studied. Data collected were analysed with the aid of computer based spreadsheet programme (EXCEL) The study revealed that the selected NGOs are contributing greatly to health promotion in the region especially in the areas of HIV/AIDS prevention, Malaria Prevention, Nutrition, Provision of Potable Water and Sanitation education and logistical support to rural clinics. However, ethnic conflict, was found to be the most significant among the problems that affect effective implementation of their programmes in the Northern Region. The study discovered that there is a struggle for power and competition among the NGOs , unclear roles of NGOs, no networking of the health programmes among the international NGOs and no co-ordination of NGO activities in the region. However, all the NGO embraced the idea of Networking as a tool for sustainable health promotion. Based on the findings, the following policy recommendations were made among others: The Northern Regional Coordinating Council should coordinate the activities of NGOs in the Northern Region to avoid duplication of efforts. NGOs, should network their health programmes and activities and strengthen the collaboration among themselves and the Ministry of Health. Besides beneficiary communities of health programmes should be involved in the problem identification, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of health programmes.