African Public Health Emergency Fund Ready to Take off
Brazzaville, 6 September 2013 --The African Public Health Emergency Fund (APHEF) proposed by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, and endorsed by African Health Ministers and Heads of State, is now ready to go operational.
This indication was given by Dr Sambo in a report to the 63rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa which is taking place in Brazzaville, Congo.
The Regional Director reported that the APHEF’s operations manual had been reviewed and endorsed at a meeting of the Fund’s monitoring committee which was held in Brazzaville in May 2013.
He also said that five countries had paid US$1.7 million as their contributions to APHEF for 2012 and 2013.
Dr Sambo called on the meeting to urge all Member States to include a budget line in their national budgets for their subsequent yearly contributions to APHEF, and to settle their 2012 and 2013 contributions to the Fund.
The annual contribution of Member States to APHEF is set at a total of US$50 million.
The purpose of APHEF is to mobilize, manage and disburse additional resources from Member States for responding rapidly and effectively to public health emergencies of national and international concern.
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For more information, please contact:
Media contact: Cam [at] who.int, WHO Regional Office for Africa, P.O Box 6, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Tel: +47 241 39100