Image Source: https://wcaro.unfpa.org/en/topics/maternal-health
Anyone who got to attend the 2022 Global Citizen Festival: Accra in our iconic Black Star Square will tell you it was an unforgettable night. But the mission of Global Citizen, the international advocacy organization, is not just to host amazing live events, but ultimately to positively impact people in the countries where they take place.
It’s been nearly two years since the Accra festival, and Global Citizen has been outlining some of the impact achieved across Ghana as a result of the pledges made on stage at the event.
One of the aims of the 2022 festival End Extreme Poverty NOW campaign was to empower the girls and young women of Ghana by advocating for investments into their education, family planning, sexual and reproductive health programmes.
In response to Global Citizen’s campaign work, the European Commission, Denmark, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced significant funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) programmes towards the empowerment of women and girls within Ghana.
Since the festival, Ghana’s UNFPA programmes have been able to provide further funding towards the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, the organization’s flagship programme on family planning, supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights in Ghana. Under the UNFPA Supplies Partnership programme, adolescents and women have gained access to a wider range of contraceptives and maternal health medicines.
“A major goal of the UNFPA Supplies Programme is to promote reproductive health, including family planning, as a core component of sustainable development, helping to save and improve lives by delivering modern contraceptives and life-saving maternal health medicines to those in need,” said Dr. David Wilfred Ochan, UNFPA Country Representative in Ghana. “By collaborating with partner organisations like Global Citizen that works with UNFPA at global level in mobilizing resources towards UNFPA Supplies Programme, we can continue our vital work in Ghana and across the continent.”
“We are grateful to our partners for their groundbreaking commitments which are driving women’s economic power, supporting family planning and reproductive healthcare, making a difference for the women and girls of Ghana,” said Liz Agbor-Tabi, Global Citizen’s Vice President of Global Policy and Strategic Relationships. “As a result of the UNFPA Supplies Programme’s important work, women and girls are gaining better access to family planning and quality reproductive healthcare medicines no matter where they live.”