Place health at heart of economic development – Prof Nonvignon

By Francis Ntow/Paul Eduarko Richardson

Accra, July 30, GNA – Professor Justice Nonvignon, a Health Economist with the Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, University of Ghana, has encouraged the government to place health at the heart of economic development.

Prof Nonvignon explained that several studies and their applications in real-life situations had proven that there existed a strong relationship between health and economic development.  

He, however, observed that over the years, governments had not prioritised health in development planning with a corresponding investment to yield the needed living conditions of the population.

“The working population who are involved in the productive sector are key to economic growth. Thus, the population must be healthy to drive economic growth,” he said.  

Prof Nonvignon said this during his Inaugural Lecture at the University of Ghana, on the topic: “The Pursuit of Health amidst Scarcity: Economics, Health and the Romance in-between”.

He said the link between health and development should not be broken, and that as a matter of urgency, there was a need to prioritise funding not only for the health sector but also the other health-related sectors to improve the health of people.

“There is a strong link between health and economic development, but when we see development plans, we don’t see a lot of prioritisation of health. Health should not simply be a social good, but an important input to economic growth,” he added.

He commended successive governments for the increase in budget allocation over the years, with the current allocation to the health sector being approximately GHS11 billion, including the National Health Insurance Scheme Levy.

He said, however, such increments had not translated into the required finance needed and the pledge of 15 per cent of the government’s annual budget to the health sector in fulfilment of the 2001 Abuja Declaration.

“What’s promised in the budget often never gets released. In fact, what’s released by the Ministry of Finance often never gets fully spent…because there are bottlenecks in our Public Financial Management System (MFPS), so, we’re unable to fully utilise this,” the Health Economist said.

On the need to prioritise increased investments in health, he said the half-year 2022 report of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) showed that the health sector was the second largest contributor to Gross Domestic Product (9.3 per cent), only after services.

“Our countries actually spend more money annually, servicing debt than spending money on social investments – critical investments such as health and education… Interest payment cannot take precedence over serving our people,” he said.

He noted that there was a myriad of challenges in the health system, including inadequate personnel-to-patient ratio, facilities like laboratories, infrastructure, governance and data systems.

Prof Nonvignon called for significant research and investment into innovative ways of influencing spending on health, including the government taking advantage of special health programmes to support the sector and to drive economic development.

“Our budget for 2023 is about $18 billion, if we invest $1bn in health, it’s low,” all those, he said were indicative of the need for the government to prioritise investment in the country’s health sector to spur economic development.

GNA

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