Victoria, Seychelles - Seychelles and the World Health Organisation signs joint two-year workplan to further support the country strengthen its health system and achieve national health.

The Minister of Health (MoH) and the acting World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative for Seychelles has signed the biennial workplan for the period 2022-23 at a media event at the Seychelles Hospital on Monday 14th February 2022. The Health Minister Peggy Vidot and Dr. Susan Tembo of the WHO Seychelles signed and exchanged copies of the two-year plan in the presence of Senior Ministry of Health officials, WHO staff and the media.

Every two years WHO makes available to the government of Seychelles funding which will support the overall health development agenda of the country. The new biennial workplan agreement between the Government of Seychelles and WHO, spanning over 2022 and 2023, is a framework worth US$ 957,874, and is anchored on the Ministry of Health’s and government priorities.  

Addressing the officials at the signing ceremony, the acting WHO Representative for Seychelles Dr. Susan Tembo said that all activities under the MoH-WHO framework are in line with the Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13), one of WHO’s transformational shift to collectively drive public health impact, track progress towards the sustainable development goals and deliver on the triple billion targets. These global targets are ensuring that a billion more people have universal health coverage, a billion more people are protected from health emergencies, and a billion more people are provided with better health and well-being.

Dr. Tembo also said that the funds provided in the work plan are only part of the support expected from WHO over the next 2 years;

“In addition to the funding made available with the signing of this workplan today, as it has always done in the past and more so over the last two years as the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO remains committed to providing additional financial and technical support to implement other solid strategies and innovations to achieve health goals. WHO commits to continue to provide relevant technical support by engaging all three-level of the organisation; the country office, regional office and headquarters as required.”

On her part the Minister of Health Honourable Peggy Vidot acknowledged the close collaboration between WHO and Seychelles and expressed her immense appreciation to WHO particularly on the technical and financial assistance the Ministry continues to receive as it respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The amount received from WHO is over and above our actual budget we receive from the government and the activities on which we agreed upon are also aligned to our strategic plan within the ministry. As a small island, Seychelles is constraint in giving all the help required by our population and WHO has always been there to assist us. For that we are always thankful”.

The Seychelles-WHO workplan is an agreed framework which supports key health developments on the country’s agenda. It outlines WHO's technical cooperation with Seychelles in priority programmes for implementation over the next two years which for this biennium includes strengthening of the health system, reinforcement of the country’s public health capacities, promoting intersectoral approaches for health, health promotion, and data and innovation to target efforts amongst others. With this new signing, WHO reaffirms its commitment to continue to support Seychelles both financially and technically to strengthen its capacity to successfully achieve national goals.