Founder and Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong has called on African governments to come up with more initiatives on public health to help curb the sanitation problems the continent faces.
According to him, “There is a strong correlation between public health and economic development. In other words, a country’s economic development depends on the health of its people.
He added that “If we don’t take the health of the people seriously, we jeopardize the development of the continent.”
Mr. Jospong was speaking at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where the Inaugural Joseph Siaw Agyepong Distinguished Lecture on Public Health in Africa was held.
The inaugural lecture was held in his honour for his initiatives, contributions to, and impact on the Public Health Sector in Ghana.
He enumerated some of the interventions his companies have made in ensuring the prevention of sanitation-related diseases and improving air quality mainly in Ghana and other parts of Africa.
These include solid and liquid waste collection and treatment, as well as the dredging of major drains in Ghana which has gone a long way to resolved age-old environmental sanitation problems and improved the quality of life in the affected communities.
He also expressed his appreciation to the Harvard Center for African Studies which initiated the lectures through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Harvard Medical School to provide a platform for dedicated health experts from many disciplines to share their work and experience in the field.
Dr Agyepong used the opportunity to commend the President of the Republic of Ghana H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his commitment to Environmental Sanitation and for creating the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to deal with Sanitation issues and subsequently improve Public Health.
“It is my passion for public health that drove me to endow this lecture series on public health in Africa, it is my firm belief that this lecture and subsequent ones, will educate new generations of global health leaders, and contribute to finding lasting and sustainable solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of Africans.
On his part, Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the African Union, Dr. John Nkengasong also urged African leaders and health experts to come up with a new public health order in Africa, that looks at the totality of the dynamics of the Public Health Delivery in Africa.
According to him, a new order in Public in Africa calls for the “Strengthening Systems for Health and Health Systems”, through the strengthening of African Public Health Institutions and the capacity of African Public Health workforce as well as encouraging local manufacturing of essential drugs that makes medication cheaper and easily accessible to citizens of the continent.
Dr Nkengasong who also served as the acting Deputy Principal Director of the Center for Global Health, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Chief of the International Laboratory Branch, Division of Global HIV and TB of the same institution, also called for an enhanced Culture of Data through Acquisition, Warehousing, Use, and Sharing of such data.
He also called for the Development of Public-Private Philanthropic Partnership in the sector to provide more investment in national Public Health institutions to proffer lasting and sustainable solutions to Africa’s Public Health problems.
Dr Nkengasong, hinted on some of the measures being put in place by the Centres for Disease Control and other health institutions in preparation to contain the looming dangers of the Covid 19 pandemic on the continent including a Multi-Sectoral Enhanced Surveillance Training as well as Risk Communication among others.
The Oppenheimer Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies, Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong commended Dr. Joseph Agyepong for being a strong supporter of the Center for African Studies and the work you do in Ghana that influences public health as well as supporting this lecture, which will bring great thought leaders on the topic of public health in Africa and ensuring that “Africa is at the front and centre of global public health conversations taking place at the university.”
Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Professor Michelle A. Williams also noted that while great strides have been made in prevention, detection, and containment of existing and emerging diseases, “we know that our health care systems are still alarmingly vulnerable. That’s true in the wealthiest and most developed places on earth—and even more so in places with limited, disjointed, or overburdened health care systems”.
“Recent pandemics underscore the urgent imperative of a sweeping, coordinated response between governments, international organizations, NGOs, and the broader public health community. That means building stronger public health systems that can detect and contain diseases. It also means better coordination across local governments—and national ones too. And it will mean accelerating research and development into diagnostic tools, vaccines, and treatments,” she said.