A one day stakeholders’ forum on Community based Health Planning Services (CHPS) and safe motherhood week under the theme: “Achieving MDGs four and five through CHPS,” has been held by the Wa Municipal Health Services. Speaking at the launch of the forum, the Wa Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Services, Madam Beatrice Kumfah said the forum seeks to launch the family planning, breast feeding and safe motherhood week in the municipality by sensitizing key stakeholders on communication strategies. She said CHPS was initiated in the country in the year 2000 to bridge the equity gap in health services and to partner service providers and the community. Madam Beatrice Kumfah said the Wa Municipality was one of the pilot districts in the country and it has been implementing CHPS on small scale basis until recently. She said through the intervention of UNICEF and JICA, communities within the municipality have been scaling up CHPS through the construction of health compounds, provision of furniture and equipment, training and the provision of services. She said MDG four is aimed at reducing child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015 and MDG five is targeting a reduction in maternal deaths by three quarters by 2015. She also urged all to accept the fact that the achievement of millennium development goals must start from the communities and each community should put in place its own strategies to prevent maternal and child morbidity and mortality. The Wa Municipality according to the municipal director has been zoned into 24 areas to be functional by 2015. She said the current situation shows that 50% of the earmarked zones have been covered with the municipality having 13 functional CHPS zones with 9 compounds covering about 31.8% of the total population. She further encoruaged all to assist in achieving set targets by doing more in order to realize gains as the population covered is still low for the benefits to be seen now. In his presentation, the regional director of Ghana Health Services, Dr Alexis Nangbaifuba said most of the diseases that have caused deaths among Ghanaians are preventable or curable if they were diagnosed promptly by simple basic and primary health care procedures. He said it is the intention of the ministry of health to extend coverage of basic and primary health care services to most people by 2015. He said Ghana has a long history of commitment to increasing access to health care. He said increasing geographic and financial access to health care is a major strategic pillar in Ghana’s health sector reforms as community engagement for communities own health needs had been explored at various times. The Nadowli district director of the Ghana Health Services, Madam Florence Angsongmwine who made a presentation on maternal and child health situation in the municipality, said women and children are the most vulnerable groups in the society. She said information gathered indicates that most men are reluctant to support their wives and children in times of seeking health care in the municipality.