The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has called on civil society organisations and other partners to collectively help in the design and adoption of a roadmap for action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health.

“The roadmap will be a blueprint that will guide Ghana in implementing the commitments made at the 4th United Nations High-Level Meeting held in New York this year,” he stated.

Mr Akandoh, who led Ghana’s delegation to the meeting, made the call in a statement read on his behalf by Alhaji Hafiz Adam, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, at a stakeholder engagement on the post-4th High-Level Meeting on NCDs and mental health in Accra.

The engagement was organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ghana NCD Alliance.

Mr. Akando said: “This roadmap should outline clear priorities, measurable targets, financing strategies, and timelines for integrating NCD and mental health services into primary health care.”

It should also address the social and commercial determinants of health and ensure meaningful engagement of people with lived experience and young people in all decision-making processes.

He said that by the collective efforts of partners, the political commitment made and adopted at the meeting would be achieved.

He said the meeting committed the world to urgent, equitable action: from doubling investments in NCDs prevention to embedding mental health in every health system.

Mr Akandoh said the delegation emphasized the importance of integrating NCD and mental health services into primary health care (PHC) systems and addressing the broader determinants of health to ensure equitable and effective responses.

“Central to Ghana’s call was the urgent need to break financial barriers that push individuals and households into poverty as a result of NCD and mental healthcare costs,” Mr Akandoh stated.

He said the meeting was a reckoning affirmation that NCDs and mental health were not peripheral crises but existential threats to Ghana’s development, adding that in Ghana, where NCDs accounted for about 45 per cent of all deaths, the Political Declaration adopted in New York was a beacon of hope.

“Ghana’s delegation’s interventions ensured that the voices of African nations, and indeed our own, echoed through the halls of the UN,” he stated.

He added, “We underscored that the fight against NCDs and mental health challenges can no longer be treated as a silent crisis but must be recognized as a pressing and deadly reality.”

The National Coordinator of the Ghana NCD Alliance, Labram Musah, commended the Chief Director of the Ministry of Health for his stand against sugar-sweetened beverage products despite the commercial interest they attract and the advice for the reduction of sugar content.

He said: “I do appreciate your objectives and the advocacy you have been doing for us (CSOs) when it comes to meetings with industry players to reject some of their demands while urging them to reduce the sugar content in their product.”

“I know industry players have commercial interest, but it is very difficult for some policymakers to admit that indeed they do meet with them, but outside it is a common game, which makes our work difficult in the fight against some products that cause NCDs.

“They (industry players) should go back and do their homework and stop disturbing us in our work. We, the CSOs and the Ministry of Health, are for the people. Leave us to develop our documents to protect the citizenry and stop infiltrating our work.”