On Thursday 18th of August 2016, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, in partnership with UNICEF and the Government of Canada, awarded 3 Journalists for their exceptional coverage as part of the “Face of Open-Defecation-Free (ODF)” Media Contest. The overall winner is Jamila Akweley Okertchiri of the Daily Guide, followed by Winifred Affum of GTV and Gabriel Obodai Torgbor-Ashong of Metro TV.

The contest was launched in December 2015 to improve media coverage on open defecation issues, as Ghana’s sanitation coverage is dramatically lagging behind the rest of the continent. While the practice perpetuates diseases such as cholera which killed 247 people in 2014, access to household toilet facilities in the country remains limited to 18% of households in urban areas and 9% in rural areas. In Ghana, only 15% of the population has access to household toilet facilities.

In order to attain the national goal of an Open-Defecation-Free (ODF) Ghana by 2020, the government, the media, UNICEF and the Government of Canada, joined hands to increase awareness on the dangers of open defecation so as to improve the health and socio-economic development of the country.