The 29th Regional Programme Meeting of the African Region of the World Health Organization (AFRO) opened Wednesday at the Organization's Regional Office in Brazzaville, Congo. It is the first major WHO-organized meeting taking place in the Congolese capital since October 2001 when WHO began a phased return of its personnel from Harare to Brazzaville. The Office had temporarily relocated to Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1997 following civil disturbances that rocked Congo that year.

Attending the three-day meeting are the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim M. Samba, the Director of Programme Management, Dr Luis G. Sambo, WHO Country Representatives from the 46 Members States in the Region, Division Directors and Regional Advisers based at the Regional Office.

Opening the meeting, Dr Samba paid tribute to President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo for living up to his promise to rehabilitate and refurbish WHO's office accommodation and residential blocks which were sacked during the 1997 civil disturbances. " Without President Sassou Nguesso's personal commitment, our facilities would not have been ready for us to move in to continue our work of helping to improve the health situation in Africa, " Dr Samba said.

Dr Samba stated that steady progress was recorded in the work of WHO in the African Region during the 2000-2001 biennium, pointing out that this was evidenced by the increase in staff strength, and in the extrabudgetary funding available to the Regional Office. He added that while AFRO staff totalled 240 in 1997, there are now 300 staff members at the Regional Office in Brazzaville and another 273 in Harare which continues to house mostly staff of the Division of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control.

The Regional Director added that for the first time, the Regional Office exhausted its budget during the 2000-2001 biennium, attributing this to the increased tempo of activities at the Regional Office in response to the needs and requests of Member States. Dr Samba maintained that AFRO remained one of the best performing of WHO's six Regions and congratulated the management and staff to whom he attributed the success achieved by AFRO. He also noted that collaboration between the Regional Office and WHO Headquarters had improved significantly and expressed satisfaction with the team spirit that has continued to characterize working relations among staff.

The general objective of the three-day Regional Programme Meeting is to improve efficiency and effectiveness of WHO technical cooperation with Member States. 

For further information please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola 
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6, Brazzaville, Congo 
Fax: 1 321 95 39509 E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int