Ghana just completed its National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) Prioritisation Workshop. This critical exercise was a collaborative effort led by the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, and other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, with support from the UK Government through the Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme Phase 2 (TDDAP 2). The programme was led by Palladium through its consortium partner IDI, and received technical support from WHO and the US CDC.
Why Prioritisation Mattered
The NAPHS was comprehensive, covering interventions ranging from laboratory strengthening to border health. Without clear priorities, resources could become fragmented. The workshop helped to identify priority actions that were expected to yield the greatest impact on Ghana’s capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats.
Workshop Highlights
One of the key highlights of the workshop was the use of simple, intuitive tools to navigate complex decision-making processes, effectively removing technical bottlenecks. These tools made it easier for multi-sectoral stakeholders to weigh impact against feasibility.
Every prioritised action was backed by data and stakeholder consensus. The process resulted in a go-to guiding document that enabled partners to immediately align their interventions with national objectives.
The identification of these key activities led to the development of a highly prioritised plan, which guided national and partner investments aimed at protecting lives across the country.
Next Steps
The Director of the Public Health Division, Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, on behalf of the Director General, outlined the subsequent actions following the NAPHS prioritisation process. These included the completion of updates to prioritized strategic actions by Technical Area Teams, submission of consolidated plans to the IHR National Focal Point, orientation on and application of the costing tool, and detailed costing of all prioritized activities. This is to be followed by validation of the costed NAPHS, consolidation and report writing by the Secretariat, validation of the final costed NAPHS document, printing of copies, and the official launch of the NAPHS.