Sixty-seventh session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa

The WHO Regional Committee for Africa is the Organization's governing body in the African Region. There are currently 47 Member States in the region. It is the annual flagship meeting of ministers of health from the Region during which they discuss a range of strategies and actions to tackle public health challenges in the Region. As the highest decision-making body on health, its decisions have over the years contributed immensely towards improving the health and well-being of people in the Region

Rules of Procedure of the Regional Committee for Africa [pdf 550kB]

The Regional Committee's main functions are formulating regional policies and programmes and supervising the activities of the Regional Office. The Regional Committee:

• formulates policies governing matters of an exclusively regional character;
• intensifies efforts to develop regional health policies and programmes in support of national, regional and global strategies for health for all;
• provides comments and guidance on the work of WHO in the African Region;
• reviews WHO's action in individual Member States within the region;
• supervises activities of the Regional Office;
• increases monitoring, control and evaluation functions to ensure the proper reflection of national, regional and global health policies in regional programmes and the proper implementation of those programmes;
• suggests to the Regional Office the calling of technical conferences and such additional work or investigation in health matters that in the opinion of the Regional Committee would promote the objective of the Organization within the region;
• takes a more active part in the work of the Organization and submits to the Executive Board recommendations and concrete proposals on matters of regional and global interest;
• recommends additional regional appropriations by the governments of the respective regions if the proportion of central budget of the Organization allotted to that region is insufficient for carrying out the regional functions; and
• undertakes such other functions as may be delegated to the Regional Committee by the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board.

The Regional Committee meets as often as necessary. The Regional Director acts as its Secretary.

Programme Subcommittee

The Programme Subcommittee (PSC) is a subsidiary body of the Regional Committee. It assists the Regional Committee by reviewing the budget, strategies, reports and proposed resolutions and advising on policy and governance matters. It consists of 16 representatives of Member States. In addition, three Executive Board members from the African Region attend the subcommittee meetings.