LEAHN Country Focal Point, Chief Superintendent Jones Blantari, recently took part in a regional consultative meeting on key populations and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in West Africa held in Dakar, Senegal. At the meeting, health and police officials commended the Ghana Police Service for its public health response to sex work ie. distribution of condoms and use of discretion – even though sex work is criminalised in Ghana. The meeting produced the Dakar Declaration which can be read here.
Chief Superintendent Blantari reports more details of the meeting below:
Report:
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region has recorded a significant drop in infection rates of HIV over the last decade. Thus there has been a reduction in prevalence from 2.0% to 1.6% in regional prevalence among the general population aged 15-49years.
However, despite this noticeable progress over the period, there still exist significant challenges especially among Key populations where the HIV prevalence is still about 30 times higher than in the general population aged 15-49 years. It also a fact that it is almost impossible to dissociate these key populations from the general populations in terms of risk of HIV infections across the region, and therefore the public health threat is often underrated.
Besides, the social, political, cultural and legal settings within the West African sub-region do not promote access to prevention, treatment and care for this chunk of general population, although it is a condition to curb HIV epidemic in the sub-region.
- The West African Health Organization (WAHO) in collaboration with USAID, UNAIDS and UNDP therefore organized a consultative meeting in Dakar, Senegal from the 9-11 April 2015 to brainstorm on fundamental factors that fuel HIV spread in the sub-region and also agree on latest scientific and evidence-based interventions.
- The meeting objective was to revamp efforts geared towards containing the HIV epidemic based on new scientific evidence through
– The sharing of outcomes and best practices on trends of HIV spread among key populations
– Agree on actions to reduce barriers that prevent the key populations from gaining access to Public Health services.
- The meeting which was under the chairmanship of the Senegalese Minister of Health Professor Awa Marie Cool Seck, had participants from all West African Countries except Nigeria made up of the following categories of representations;
– Ministry of Health
– Ministry of Internal Affairs/Interior
– Attorney-General’s Department
– Civil Society Organisations
– UN agencies (Regional Office in Dakar)
– USAID West Africa
The Ghanaian delegation comprised of
The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission; and representatives from
-The Ministry of Health
– Attorney-General’s Department
-The Ghana Police Service/Ministry of Interior
– A Representative of the Civil Society Organizations.
I wish to state that the remarkable achievement of the Ghana Police Service was highly acknowledged both at the committee meetings and the plenary. Mention was made that even though the laws of Ghana prohibited Key Populations activities, the Ghana Police Service stood out as a test case of how Police authorities in the West- African Sub-region could employ both the Human Rights Approach and the Public Health Approach in dealing with Key Populations. And this has greatly contributed to the low levels of HIV infection in Ghana.
I stated that the Ghana Police Service had to employ the ‘Meaningful Engagement’ module which has the added advantages of
– Consensus building
– Efficient use of resources
– Sustainability
– Ownership/buy-in/tokenism from the Police Administration.
– Transparency.
It is hoped from the responses that other police institutions in the West African sub-region would be glad to visit Ghana and learn at first hand the structures and processes that are in place for possible replication in their various countries.
I also wish to thank the Police Administration for their moral and material support in our quest to blaze the trail in this regard, and thereby contributing in our own small way in the material and human development of all the citizenry of our dear nation Ghana.
The meeting produced the Dakar Declaration on Factoring Key Populations in the Response to HIV and AIDS in ECOWAS Member States as a way to move forward.
By Chief Superintendent Blantari
