Kigali, 26 August 2009 -- The 59th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa will take place from 31 August to 4 September at the Conference Centre of Serena Hotel in Kigali, the Rwandan capital.

The Regional Committee, WHO's Governing Body in the African Region, will consider a report on the work of WHO in the Region in 2008 to be presented by the Regional Director, Dr Luis Sambo.

The report will provide a comprehensive review of the work of WHO in the region, highlighting successes achieved and challenges faced in the pursuit of the Organization's mandate of helping to improve the health situation in Member States.

A highlight of this year's meeting will be the nomination of a new Director for the WHO African Region.

High on the agenda of this year's Regional Committee is WHO's Programme Budget for the 2010-2011 biennium, and orientations for its implementation in the African Region.

Other agenda items are: progress made towards reaching improvements set out in the health-related Millennium Development Goals; drug resistance related to AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria; prospects for measles and malaria elimination, and the scourge of Neglected Tropical Diseases facing the Region. The five-day meeting will also discuss: strengthening outbreak preparedness and response in the context of the current global Pandemic H1N1 2009; policy orientation on the establishment of Centres of Excellence for diseases surveillance, public health laboratories and food and drug regulation; public health, innovation and Intellectual Property, as well as frameworks for the implementation of the Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health systems in Africa and the Algiers Declaration on Research for Health in the African Region.

Delegates will be informed of progress made in the African Region in the areas of: acceleration of HIV prevention, child survival and the implementation of the International Health Regulations. Roundtable discussions to be held on the sidelines of the meeting will focus on sharing best practices in strengthening local and district health systems.

Activities will also be organized for the commemoration of the 7th African Traditional Medicine Day while special sessions will be held on TB control, the African AIDS vaccine programme and the introduction of conjugate meningitis vaccines in the Region.

The Regional Committee is made up of Health Ministers from the 46 countries which constitute the African Region of WHO. Its principal brief is to review WHO's work in the Region and give orientations on suggested actions to improve the health situation in Member States.

Among the estimated 400 participants expected at the meeting are senior WHO officials including WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan; WHO Representatives in the African Region, and representatives of UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes and bilateral, multilateral, Inter Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations and other partners working to improve the health situation in Africa.

For more information, please contact : 

Devendre Gopaul: gopauld [at] afro.who.int Tel. +47 241 39416

Bosco Gasherebuka: gasherebukab [at] rw.afro.who.int Tel.: (+250) 0788517751 

Gamaliel Binamungu: ndungum [at] yahoo.co.uk Tel.: (+-250)  07 88 30 30 34 
et (+250) 55 10 33 88

Samuel Ajibola: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int Tel.: +47 241 39378