Meet Emmanuel Ayifah, Deputy Director of SEND Ghana

In June, we met with Emmanuel Ayifah, the Deputy Director of SEND Ghana, an organization that focuses on policy research and advocacy in several areas.

What are you working on right now? SEND is a policy research and advocacy organization. I work in advocacy, promotion, and policy research, and these cut across a host of sectors. We look at health—which is where the economics of immunization falls—education, culture, governments, as well as other areas like public financial management. In terms of immunization, our interest is the fact that we need to get every child (and every community) immunized and leave no one behind.

Can you tell me a little more about how your work contributes to ensuring we leave no one behind? One main area has to do with monitoring immunization service delivery at all levels. In the COVID-19 era, we have been closely monitoring vaccinations from the cold-chain room to get them to vaccination centers. We’ve also been doing some post-vaccination organizational research through interviews to find out about people’s experience with vaccination processes. So, once we conduct this monitoring research or tracking, we use that information to engage in government and international budget partnerships to improve immunization service delivery.

Our interest is to make sure that vaccine-preventable diseases do not take away our children. We always want to make sure that we champion this through our research and advocacy.

How did you get started in immunization economics? My interest came from my earlier work in an orphanage. When I was in university, I volunteered for an orphanage on Cape Coast called the Human Service Trust, and they had children up to age six. At that age, you need to be immunized, and I realized how immunization is very critical in those first five years. Although that wasn’t my role, I made sure that any time they brought a child in, I inquired about their immunization status, and we worked to get them immunized.

Now, I see myself more as a researcher looking at various components related to immunization, such as financing, coverage, and access. I see myself as someone promoting immunization.

Tell me about the work you will be presenting at the Immunization Economics pre-congress at IHEA. I’ll be presenting part of the work we are doing at SEND Ghana in collaboration with UNICEF and the International Budget Partnership. We looked broadly at immunization financing and tracked immunization budgets in selected districts in Ghana. In terms of immunization coverage, Ghana is one of the countries that is doing very well within the West African subregion. We realized there are some disparities when we look at certain districts and certain regions. The thinking is that it’s important to look at budget credibility issues in immunization and in the broader framework of immunization financing. The main objective is to track budgetary allocations for immunization.

We looked at five districts in four regions and spoke to District Health Officers, District Assembly personnel, district planning officers, district budget offices, district coordinating directors, and our district health management team. We looked at data from 2019 to now, to see how much was budgeted for health in general, which proportion was for immunization, and what portion was disbursed.

Is there something you’re looking forward to most about the IHEA Congress? This will be my first IHEA Congress, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to. I like conferences, especially when I get to contribute a presentation. I found the opportunity to attend through sponsorship from the Immunization Economics community of practice, for which I am grateful. I’m mostly looking forward to seeing what other people are doing on immunization finance. In addition, in Ghana we have challenges with supplies, and I have an interest in learning about research in this area. The congress also gives me an opportunity to meet other researchers to collaborate with. Whatever we learn there is likely to influence the kind of work SEND Ghana and I will be doing in immunization going forward.

Which part of conducting research do you like best? I like that I do not do pure academic research where once you publish that is it. In my work, it is more policy influenced. I conduct research beyond publishing in a journal, I have the chance to engage policymakers and actors to act. With SEND Ghana, we use the research to engage the government. The Ministry of Health will then engage the parliamentary select committees on health and finance, and they will in turn engage the President’s advisors on health. That is the aspect I like most about conducting the research that I do, that it influences policy decisions and interfaces at the national level and even the local level, that I get to be a part of policy discourse.

How do you like to spend time outside of work? I don’t know how to answer this because the work is so much that you’re always working, whether you’re on vacation or not! That doesn’t mean that I don’t have free time at all, I do have free time. I like human-centered issues, so when I am not in my formal work, I like to interact with people just to understand issues that I may want to focus on.

And I like soccer! Unfortunately, I don’t have time to play now, but I used to play. When I was growing up, I was selected to be part of Ghana’s under-12 team and I was supposed to play for the Manchester United Academy. But my mom said that because I was her only son, she wouldn’t allow me to travel alone!

Tea or coffee? I am not a fan of either, let me be frank. I am more into cocoa. That doesn’t mean I don’t take tea or coffee at all, but if you ask me, I am a fan of cocoa. Raw cocoa has been found to be very healthy and nutritious.