SFH International Ghana (SFHIG) Supports the Family Health Division (FHD) of Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Community Pharmacy Practice Association (CPPA) in Training of Community Pharmacists (CPs) in Community based provision of Family Planning Services.

Last week, SFHIG supported the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS -FHD) and Community Pharmacy Practice Association (CPPA) of Ghana to train Community Pharmacists (CPs) in Community-Based Family Planning Methods and Services. The Training of CPs occurred in 6 regions (Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Eastern, Western and Volta regions) of Ghana. The training, funded by UNFPA Ghana, focused on FP policies, standards and protocols in Ghana, Community Based FP methods, Data Management, counselling, and referral.

This project, built on the current learnings from the Task shifting Task Sharing Policy in many African Countries to increase access for Ghanaian women to Family Planning Counselling, commodities and referrals for FP services and strengthen linkages between the public and private sectors. This project will also answer market research questions on whether working with community pharmacists will broaden method choice for women generally and more specifically for the young and sexually active adolescent girls based on the Ghana FP Costed Implementation Plan.

Northern Region

A total of 240 Community Pharmacists were trained it is expected a phased approach will be implemented throughout the 1st year of the project, with training and development of tools for counselling at national level and scale up of training of Community Pharmacists (CPs) to other regions.