African Health ministers have pledged to work together to take concrete actions to improve the health of people in the continent. At the end of a two-day meeting held in Luanda, the Angolan capital, the Ministers expressed concern about the numerous challenges facing public health services which continue to hinder Africa´s sustainable socio-economic development.

They agreed to involve every sector (private, public, civil society, partners etc.) to collectively end preventable deaths of mothers and children, prevent the common risks related with non-communicable diseases and work towards universal health coverage to ensure that everyone has access to quality health care.

Speaking after the closing session, the Dr Luis Sambo, WHO Regional Director for Africa, thanked the Ministers for the quality of the discussion and their commitment to improve people´s health in Africa. He underscored the importance of partnership and express the hope that the commitments will bring us much closer to our goal of improving health outcomes. 

“The continent´s health challenges call for technical excellence, intersectoral collaboration and political leadership.  I wish to take this opportunity to appeal to you to continue providing leadership and advocate for more resources to the health sector to strengthen health systems. Africa´s health challenges require strong and robust health infrastructure, to sustain the gains and move forward”.

The African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Dr Mustapha Kalolo reiterated his call for stronger collaboration and stressed that: “The technical capacity of WHO and the convening leverage of the AUC forms a formidable force in our efforts to make Africa a healthy continent”.

In the Luanda Declaration issued at the end of the two-day historic meeting, the delegates acknowledged that universal health coverage can improve people´s health and is critical to Africa´s socio-economic development. They noted that it is the way forward for African countries given the prevailing health problems facing the continent.

The Continent´s health leaders agreed that despite the commendable efforts of African countries to improve maternal and child health, many of them continue to die during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-delivery period. This situation is made worse by poverty and armed conflicts. They committed themselves to address this scourge by putting in place an integrated package of essential actions and services and advocate for adequate resources to address the social, economic and environmental determinants of health.

On strengthening the continent’s ability to timely detect epidemic prone diseases, the Ministers agreed to establish the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to avert the high death and sickness associated with severe public health events.

They also underscored the urgent need to establish the African Medicines Agency (AMA) to support the Continent´s pharmaceutical industry, improve people’s access to quality medicines and medical products, and help prevent the circulation and consumption of inferior-quality medicines.

The meeting also drew attention to the rising tide of noncommunicable diseases and pledged to implement a combination of simple, cost effective individual actions and concerted multisectoral national to reduce the major risk factors associated with these diseases.

The Ministers requested the African Union Commission and World Health Organization together with all relevant stakeholders, to assist countries to implement and monitor these commitments.

The 1st Ministers of Health meeting, jointly organized by the African Union Commission, the World Health Organization and the Government of Angola was attended by over 300 participants including, Health Minsters, Experts, observers and representatives of international and civil-society organizations and the mass media.

The delegates agreed to hold the second joint meeting of African Ministers of Health in April 2016 in Tunisia.