European Union

The Ghana AIDS Commission on behalf of Government is grateful to the European Union and UNAIDS for making available an amount of 400,000 euros as a contribution to the national response.

Specifically, this amount is geared towards ‘Strengthening Country Capacity to Scale up national efforts towards Universal Access to HIV and AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment through Enhanced Implementation of National AIDS Responses including Global Fund Grants’. The signing of this grant today is an indication of the European Commission’s commitment to providing support by way of strengthening the technical capacity of the Ghana AIDS Commission to lead and manage the National Response. The event is goes a long way to show the confidence development partners have on the Ghana AIDS Commission’s ability to deliver on its mandate.

The national response requires quality and timely technical support to plan, budget  implement and monitor the 2010-2015 National Strategic Plan (NSP) to effectively and efficiently track the national response especially as the HIV epidemic continues to pose a major challenge the socio- economic development of Africa as a whole and Ghana in particular. The AIDS Commission notes that the UNAIDS among other things will support the development of a new tool in the form of a shared database for technical support called CoATS (Coordinating AIDS Technical Support database). We are hopeful that this tool will provide up to date information on the technical support planned and implemented.

1. Specifically the Ghana AIDS Commission will collaborate with the UNAIDS and the European Union through this Memorandum of Understanding, towards the shared goal of reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015, scale up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and expand capacity to deliver comprehensive HIV and AIDS programmes in ways that strengthen the existing national health and social system and pay special attention to the gender dimension through the following expected results:
   • Technical needs assessment and national technical support plan developed in Ghana including an integrated monitoring and evaluation mechanism for improved coordination and management of technical support, a mapping of technical support providers and the creation of a national database
   • Implementation of the national technical support plan;
   • Monitoring of the implementation of the national technical plan aimed at providing strategic information and documentation of best practices on improved coordination and management of technical support;
2. The parties will closely collaborate to facilitate the implementation of the activities related to the “Strengthening Country Capacity to Scale up national efforts towards Universal Access to HIV and AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment through Enhanced Implementation of National AIDS Responses including Global Fund Grants” in Ghana, as set forth in the Contribution Agreement to be signed by the European Union and the World Health Organization for implementation by UNAIDS.
3. Through the implementation of activities foreseen in the said Contribution agreement, based on an agreed work plan with Ghana, UNAIDS will assist the relevant stakeholders  of Ghana in the development of a technical needs assessment and the development, implementation and monitoring of a national technical support plan

The Ghana AIDS Commission through the NSP (currently being developed) is committed to providing sterling leadership for the national response over the next five years, with Support from Government and our Development Partners. We will engage in evidence-based prevention interventions, provide quality, timely and technical information to our partners.

Three institution are represented by Dr. Angela El-Adas (Ghana AIDS Commission), Dr. Leopold Zekeng (UNAIDS), Mr. Claude Maerten (European Union).

Media Contacts:

EU Delegation to Ghana:
Rejoice Esi ASANTE