Top WHO Officials to Meet in Nigeria for First Time

By Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The top management of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Policy Group (GPG) will  hold a week-long meeting in Nigeria for the first time starting from April 10 to 12, 2018.

 The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, disclosed this in statement yesterday by the Director of Media and Public Relations, Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola.

Adewole said the GPG membership is made up of the Director-General, Deputy Director-General, six Regional Directors and  Executive Director of the WHO Emergencies Programme. 

According to him, the group is an internal advisory mechanism to the Director-General (DG)  established to ensure the coherent implementation of decisions, policies and strategies of WHO across all levels of the organisation.

The minister said: “Nigeria is honoured to host the Director General and Regional Directors of WHO at this auspicious time.”

He also said the presence of WHO’s top decision makers provides opportunity for Nigeria to strengthen collaboration with the organisation. 

Adewole also stated that WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and regional directors are expected to pay a courtesy call on “President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him on his laudable efforts to improve the health and well-being of Nigerians, and the commendable aspiration of reaching over 100 million Nigerians with basic minimum package of primary healthcare services.”

The minister said Tedros would carry out a full programme of activities including field visits to relevant health agencies such as Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Revitalised Model Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Kuchingoro, Abuja, and to also hold discussions with high-ranking government officials and key stakeholders. 

He further stated that the discussions would focus on WHO’s technical support to strengthen the country’s health system to achieve the health related Sustainable Development Goals within the context of revitalisation of PHC for universal health coverage and humanitarian response in the North-east.

While in Nigeria, he said the WHO director-general  would also launch the implementation of the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemic (EYE) Strategy in Africa on April 10 2018.