Kick Polio Out of Ghana

On Saturday I had the privilege to participate in an iconic Rotary event: polio immunization. Rotary has dedicated itself to eradicating polio from the world. It has mobilized considerable resources for the effort and perhaps even more importantly brought considerable attention to the opportunity to ensure that no child ever has to lose her life or ability to walk to this scourge. I joined another Ambassadorial Scholar and two Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Accra in a neighborhood of southern Accra for the last day of immunizations. Most of the children had already received the oral vaccine, deworming tablet, and Vitamin A dosage at their schools on Thursday and Friday. Led by three volunteers from the area, we moved from house to house “mopping up” any children who didn’t have the tell tale purple ink stain on their left pinky finger.

I would never have been able to get as intimate look at the communities we visited without this program. At the same time, I did feel a bit uncomfortable at times tramping into people’s homes and looking around to “see how they live.” I have no aspirations to be a poverty tourist. I suppose I can justify my presence there by sharing it with you. Life is difficult for many in these communities. They are literally on the city’s margins, in this case the southern margin, next to the coast. Mothers were genuinely happy to see us. No one questioned the value of the service or hesitated to have her child vaccinated.

I was glad to see that Rotary’s polio vaccination initiative had really transformed over the years into a true partnership with the Ghanaian government. A local government clinic provided much of the logistical support for the vaccination. I’ve been doing research on aid and debt forgiveness, and too often the provision of a key public good like health or education by a foreign or private donor ends up eroding government capacity. Because the government can depend on the private sector to provide the service, it diverts its resources to other endeavors. See van de Walle, African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999 if you’re interested. That did not appear to be the case here. The Rotarians whom we accompanied told us that polio has become exceedingly rare in Ghana, the last recorded infection incurring a few years ago.