Overview

Map of Wa West District displaying the nine(9) administrative sub districts

Background

Wa West District is one of the eleven administrative districts of the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana. The district is predominantly rural and bigger than all the municipalities and districts in the UWR with number of health facilities -86. The district is only second to Wa Municipal with population of 104,515, 226 communities and 86 health facilities. There is not a single urban population in the district. The youthful population (0-17) constitutes approximately 47% of the total population, whilst the aged (65 and above) accounts for a legible proportion of 4.3%. The economically active population (18-64 age groups) accounts for 48.7% of the district’s population and dependency ratio is approximately 1:1. This implies that every economically active person has an additional mouth to cater for. Also, the many and scattered communities coupled with the very bad state of the roads in the district makes wide coverage of health services to all communities a difficult task.

Strengths and Opportunities of the rural Wa West District

1. Strong leadership

2. Team Work by health staff

3. Available Diverse Human Resource

4. Heavily populated and will be able to improve health service indicators if the needed resources are provided

5. Many health facilities located at communities and will improve access to service delivery if the need resources are provided

6. Have district hospital ,if well equipped, will improve quality of service delivery to the rural people

7. Have the district Assembly and DCE ,if they support the health sector ,will improve the health status of the

rural people

8. Very committed and hardworking staff, if resources are provided, will work to improve the health status of the rural people

9. Most communities are very supportive, they use their initiatives to build structures for health service

delivery

10. Many mother-to- Mother support groups in the communities

Key challenges

The district is challenged in numerous ways :

1. Only 19 health facilities have motor bikes out of 86 health facilities

2. Out of the 58 health facilities with structures , 25 have portable water ( boreholes)

Only 22 health facilities are connected to the national grid of electricity, out of the 58 Health facilities

with structures, 28% of health facilities having electricity.

3. Inadequate maternal and child health equipment ( Delivery beds, Delivery sets, autoclaves, Detention

beds, Mayo tables, Episiotomy scissors, Screens ,oxygen cylinders and accessories etc)

4. Lack of office equipment (Laptops, desktops, Printers, photocopiers, Vaccine fridges, etc)

5. Negative sociocultural attitudes and practices among the populace, ,Female Genital Mutilation ( FGM) ,

superstition ,consultation of Gods when sick etc

6. Very high illiteracy rate especially among women and girls( many communities have no single school nor

electricity)

7. High teenage pregnancy 15% in most communities

8. Inadequate structures,28 CHPS are operating under trees

9. Out of the 226 communities, only 70 communities are connected to the national grid of electricity

10. Very bad road net work

11. Many health facilities are inaccessible during rainy season

Demographics

The district is located in the North Western part of the region and stretches from longitudes 40°N to 245° and

from latitudes 9″W to 32°W, covering an area of approximately 1492.0 square kilometres representing about 10 percent of the region’s total land area (GSS, 2014).

To the South, North-West and East, it has a common boundary with the Northern Region, Nadowli District and Wa Municipal respectively, and to the West with Burkina Faso.

Lying in the Sahel belt makes the district prone to other epidemic prone diseases such as yellow fever, meningitis, anthrax, measles, cholera etc.

There are eighteen border communities with Burkina Faso which makes it prone to diseases from that country as well. Sharing boundary with Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district in the Northern Region is another challenge as it is also a new district and even more less endured with health facilities. Therefore, the people of that district use the Wa West district facilities at times.

Target Population for service delivery

Socio-Cultural structure

The people of the district are mainly of two tribes; the Dagaaba and Brifor. There are Christians, Moslems and Traditionalist evenly distributed amongst population. Also, there exists a consecrated chieftaincy institution with two paramoncies namely Dorimon and Wechiau. The paramount chiefs and their sub-chiefs are recognized as major tools in improving and sustaining community participation in health and other development related activities in the district.

Wa West is considered as one of the deprived districts in Ghana with majority of the people being predominantly peasant farmers with low income generation. This is due to erratic rainfall and poor farming practices. Others also engage in traditional craft such as weaving of cloth pottery, basketry and woodcarving with limited market for their products. Few are engaged in fishing and as civil servants. People live together mainly in rural compound dwellings with men generally being the bread winners for most households. Acute shortage of accommodation for civil servants in the district is an issue of major concern.

Less than 10% of the population in the District has access to sanitary facilities 2244 households with latrines. There are only few KVIPs constructed through community initiative. Drainage is almost non-existent in the communities. The District has problems with her institutional structures to deal with waste.

Infrastructural development in the district is at low ebb especially the road network, communication facilities and power supply. Much of the road network is very poor arid inaccessible especially during the raining season. Besides, poor communication network is another challenge in the district. Out of the 9 sub-districts health centres, only three are covered by MTN and partially Airtel mobile network. The rest of the communities are without any network telephone facilities. The entire catchment zone of a subdistrict is without electricity ,water and mobile network

The Wa West District has a great tourism potential in terms of natural, cultural, historical and man-made attractions. The tourist attractions include the following Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary which brings both local and foreign visitors to the district; Unique Lobe Architecture and Crocodile pond around Ga.

Another nagging issue in the district is illiteracy, which is rated to be about 83%, especially among women. The in- depth household survey has not been conducted to determine the exact illiteracy rate. School enrolment for ages 6-25 in the district is very low. With the 226 communities in the district, but the number of schools are very few 11 nurseries, 48 Primary, 26 Junior Secondary and 2 Senior High schools.

Health status is low as mirrored by childhood and maternal mortality. Infant mortality is 62 deaths per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate is 127 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal mortality is estimated at 32 deaths per 1,000 live births; this means that four children who die before their first birthday, nearly one out of two die within the first month of life. It also has a Maternal Mortality rate of 0/100,000, the incidence of HIV/AIDS rate of 1.7 and Malnutrition rate of 43. The doctor-patient ratio is 2:95983 and Nurse-patient ratio is 1:628.

These indicators have generally fallen below the national rates. The people have a strong belief in medicine prepared from the barks, leaves, seeds, and roots of trees which are considered efficacious for the caring of many ailments. Only a small proportion of the total population lives within the 8km radius and most clients are able to seek health care only on market days when they can have access to transport.

Distribution of health Facilities

Distribution of health staff by category