Ghana’s hard-won progress in family planning is at risk of stagnation or reversal unless the country urgently secures sustainable domestic financing to safeguard contraceptive supply chains, health officials have warned.
Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has sounded the alarm over the country’s over-reliance on external funding for family planning (FP) commodities. Speaking through a representative at the launch of the 2025 National Family Planning Week in Accra, Prof. Akoriyea emphasized that recent disruptions in donor support highlight the critical need for Ghana to build financial resilience and take greater ownership of its reproductive health agenda.
“While we are grateful for the contributions of development partners like UNFPA and WAHO, the sustainability of our family planning programme cannot depend on unpredictable donor flows,” he said. “We must urgently develop robust domestic financing strategies that ensure continuous access to essential FP commodities.”
The theme for this year’s FP week, “Empowering Choices, Strengthening Families, for Ghana’s Future,” underscores the pivotal role of family planning in national development. However, beneath the theme lies a more pressing issue—Ghana’s shrinking pool of funding sources for contraceptives.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which historically procured nearly 45% of Ghana’s contraceptives, has recently halted its support, creating what GHS officials describe as a “significant commodity security gap.” Currently, UNFPA covers about 40% of Ghana’s needs, WAHO contributes 5%, and the Government of Ghana only 10%, leaving a troubling shortfall.
Dr. Kennedy Brightson, Director of the GHS Family Health Division, revealed that despite modest improvements in contraceptive uptake, the country’s ability to meet growing demand is increasingly threatened by funding uncertainty.
“Latest data from FP2030 shows Ghana’s modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) at 29.2%, with 23.5% of women having an unmet need. Yet the demand satisfied with modern methods is just over 51%,” Dr. Brightson said. “Without secure, sustained financing, we risk reversing gains in maternal health, education, and gender equality.”
Experts and advocates at the event agreed that beyond external aid, Ghana must explore domestic financing innovations—such as budget line allocations, health insurance integration, and public-private partnerships—to safeguard reproductive health services.
Mrs. Angelina Kodua Nyanor, Executive Director of the National Population Council (NPC), stressed the strategic importance of family planning to achieving balanced population growth and long-term socio-economic stability. “Family planning is not a luxury. It is an essential public good with far-reaching implications for education, healthcare, and economic development,” she said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), family planning allows individuals to determine the timing and number of their children and is central to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.7, which calls for universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.
Professor Akoriyea reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to its FP2030 goals but warned that targets alone are insufficient without financial backing. “This is a wake-up call. If Ghana is to achieve inclusive, rights-based family planning coverage, we must take bold steps now to invest in the systems and supply chains that make those services possible,” he said.
As the country marks Family Planning Week from September 26 to October 3, the message is clear: to secure the future of reproductive health in Ghana, domestic financing must move from rhetoric to reality.
