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Participants at a public forum in the Eastern Region have called on the Ministry of Finance to increase budgetary allocation for the provision of health care services to people living with HIV and help prevent its spread in the country.

They said this is necessary in the face of the increasing withdrawal of support for health care by the international development partners of the country.

The regional forum, organized by SEND Ghana, a civil society organization, was held to collate inputs from ordinary Ghanaians for the 2020 national budget.

The participants called for an increase in the District Assemblies Common Fund allocation for HIV prevention from 0.5 per cent to two per cent to provide enough resources for HIV prevention activities at the local level.

They also called for the provision of budgetary allocation for radio and television programmes in health education to promote family planning and reduce maternal and infant mortality in the country.

The participants said there is sufficient information in the country on what needs to be done for the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in family planning and maternal and infant mortality but what is lacking is how to get the information across to the entire population.

Mrs Harriet Nuamah Agyemang of SEND Ghana said past experience shows that, the Ministry of Finance adopted some of the proposals from the regional fora into the budget hence the need for such programmes.