Public health physician and lawyer, Dr Edward Addo Dankwa, has called for the depoliticisation of major government health interventions, warning that excessive political branding could threaten their sustainability when administrations change.
Speaking during a JoyNews and Amalgam of Professional Bodies Dialogue on Tuesday, Dr Dankwa described the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (Mahama Cares)—a government initiative aimed at addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—as a laudable and much-needed intervention, but cautioned against tying such critical programmes too closely to partisan politics.
“Mahama Cares, which addresses NCDs, is a laudable idea. Singling it out, giving it priority and dedicating resources to it is commendable. But my concern is sustainability, especially when such important health programmes are politicised,” he stated.
He noted that changes in government often lead to shifts in priorities, raising doubts about whether successor administrations would maintain the same level of commitment to politically branded initiatives.
Dr Dankwa argued that Ghana’s experience shows health policies with strong institutional backing tend to endure beyond political cycles. Citing examples such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), free maternal healthcare and the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), he said some initiatives have survived precisely because they were embedded within national systems rather than personalised.
“There are policies that have been sustained. We can do better. But the lesson is clear: we must try to depoliticise these interventions,” he added.
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