Luanda, 21 November  2012 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has proposed a set of actions which African countries  should prioritize to strengthen their national health systems, drawing resources from the large number of existing global health initiatives (GHIs) operating in the Region. Global Health Initiatives are programmes targeted at specific diseases and are intended to bring additional resources to the health efforts of countries.

Dr Sambo’s proposal is contained in a report he presented today to the Sixty-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa taking place in Luanda, Angola.

He said the dramatic increase in the number of GHIs means that countries need to improve how they work with different stakeholders in the health sector. He also underscored the importance of better coordination and communication among GHIs and other key players so that they can be more efficient, harmonise their activities with other partners and concentrate more on the health priorities of individual countries.

One of the actions proposed by the Regional Director is strengthening country stewardship and management capacity for estimating the resources required for the implementation of health interventions supported by GHIs. He recommended that in developing funding proposals for submission to partners, countries should ensure that all proposed interventions were integrated into national health strategic plans.

He further urged countries to pool all revenues collected from different sources into an integrated financing mechanism as that would reinforce country efforts to move towards universal health coverage with the entire population having access to good quality integrated health services. The Regional Director also recommended that countries maximize the use of existing health system funding openings by ensuring achievement of results in a timely, accountable and transparent manner.

Dr Sambo concluded that the ability of GHIs to raise and disburse additional funds to support disease control and health systems strengthening provides a unique opportunity for African countries to im-prove the health of their people.
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For more information, please contact:

Dr Babacar Drame, drameb [at] afro.who.int (drameb[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int); tel: +47-241-39329
Samuel T. Ajibola, ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int); tel: +47-241-39378 
C. Boakye-Agyemang,  Boakyec [at] afro.who.int (Boakyec[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int); tel +47-241-39420

Optimizing global health initiatives to strengthen National Health Systems