Brazzaville, 13 June 2013 – Members of the Harmonization for Health in Africa Steering Committee are meeting in Brazzaville, Congo, to agree on a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the work of the regional health partnership that will be used to assess the HHA partnership’s progress within countries and across the region. The meeting is attended by HHA Steering Committee members, specialists in monitoring & evaluation, health economists, experts drawn from HHA agencies and external consultants.

Speaking at the opening session, the WHO Deputy Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, noted that since its inception seven years ago, the partnership has grown from 6 to 14 members to include bilateral development agencies, partnerships and alliances. “The establishment and maturing of a functioning forum for dialogue and joint action among partners working on health development in the Region level is in itself a major achievement’, she said. 

The Deputy Regional Director who was speaking on behalf of Dr Sambo, the Regional Director commended the partnership on its advocacy work and in particular the dialogue on financing for health between Ministers of Health and Finance which culminated in the adoption of the Tunis Declaration last year. 

Referring to the commitments expressed in the Tunis Declaration, she called on the HHA partners to ensure that the various parties deliver, and that the expected progress is made by countries and other stakeholders.
“To date, we have been challenged to systematically monitor our performance and achievements, and to demonstrate to ourselves, and others, how much of a difference our working together in this partnership is making to health development in countries in Africa,” said Dr Moeti.

The three-day meeting is expected to also come up with key recommendations for improving data collection and for development of a scorecards system. 

Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA) is a collaborative initiative led by WHO, involving a number of agencies including the African Development Bank, France, Japan International Cooperation Agency,  Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, UNAIDS, United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Population Fund, United States Agency for International Development, UN Women, World Bank, World Health Organization (HHA Secretariat)
The HHA collaborating partners work includes providing support for Health Financing, Human Resources for Health, Pharmaceuticals and Supply Chains, Governance and Service Delivery, Infrastructure and ICT.

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For more information, please contact: 

Mr Bernardino Cardoso, +47-241-39322  ; Email: cardosob [at] afro.who.int
Mr C. Boakye-Agyemang +47-241-39420  E-mail: Boakyec [at] afro.who.int