This it said was urgently needed to detect cervical cancer in woman at its pre-cancerous states and prevent it from progressing into uncontrollable stages to avoid needless and preventable deaths among women and girls.

Speaking at the 10th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society in Accra,  Professor Alexander Tawiah Odoi, President of SOGOG said the low knowledge of the disease among the public had made it the second most frequent cancer among women aged 15 to 44.

"Current estimates indicate that every year, 3151 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 2119 of them die as a result," he said.

Prof. Odoi observed that improving reproductive healthcare in Ghana entailed the expansion, redesigning and re-allocation of resources to change social and cultural perceptions about reproductive health interventions.

The AGM discussed issues such as how to increase surgical outreach services in obstetrics and gynaecology and how to increase access to emergency obstetric care.

Other topics included how to increase cervical cancer screening in Ghana and how to increase man power training in reproductive health.

Dr. Owen Kaluwa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Ghana congratulated the Society on its achievement for improving reproductive health care in Ghana.

Commenting on the theme for the meeting, "Improving access to reproductive healthcare in Ghana", Dr. Kaluwa said it was prudent for the society to put in more efforts to ensure access to quality essential reproductive health services to everyone everywhere.

He urged the Society to deliberate and come up with strategies to improve access to reproductive health care and also pay attention to components that would strengthen maternal health care in all parts of the country.

Dr. Owen called for the provision of well-designed health programmes with basic essential service packages that provide core reproductive, maternal and child health services for women and children.

"The 2018 Atlas for African Health Statistics showed that Ghana still has a lot of work to do to reach the Sustainable Development Goal targets for Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH)," he said.

This he said was a clear indication that business as usual would not help Ghana to attain   the RMNCAH targets for 2030, hence, the need to accelerate actions and adopt innovative approaches in implementation programmes.

Ms Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection   for her part said surveys of women in developing countries suggested that a large percentage from 10 to 40 percent wanted to space child bearing but were not using contraceptives, a sign of a continuing unmet need for contraception.

"Family planning is central to gender equality and women empowerment and it is very key in reducing poverty, yet, more that 220 million women in developing countries lack access to contraceptives and family planning information," she said.

She said Ghana had a population of 8.57 million women aged 15 years and older who   were at risk of developing cervical cancer yet, "there is no organised cervical cancer screening programme in the country".

She encouraged the SOGOG to provide national leadership on discussions in increasing access to reproductive health by convincing development partners and the government to develop evidence-based policies, while offering pragmatic and chemical advices to them.