On 23 February 2017, the World Health Organization Ethiopia Country Office conducted a one-day validation workshop of the Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) for the period 2016-2020, in Addis Ababa. The objective of this workshop was to validate the final draft of WHO Ethiopia’s CCS 2016-2020 with the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and development partners. The workshop was attended by experts from FMoH, CDC, UNICEF, UNAIDS and UNFPA.

23 February, 2017: The World Health Organization strongly supports yesterday’s announcement by the Government of South Africa to implement a tax on sugary beverages as part of the country’s campaign to promote the health of its citizens and combat the increasing challenges of diabetes and obesity.

The tax on sugary drinks was among several important health measures announced as part of the government’s 2017/18 budget.

Uganda launched the second universal coverage campaign for Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) with the aim of reducing the overall malaria parasite prevalence to below 7% nationally.

The campaign estimated to cost USD 120m, including procurement of LLINs and distribution costs, was launched by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda The Right Honourable Dr Ruhakana Rugunda who represented President Yoweri Museveni at a colourful ceremony held in Apac district, northern Uganda under the theme “Consistent use of LLINs”.

Addis Ababa, 22 February 2017 - The World Health Organization Country Office in Ethiopia in collaboration with the Global Leprosy Programme (GLP) organized a training of consultants on the Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020 to support Global Leprosy Program implementation at country level. The training took place in Addis Ababa, from 13-17 February 2017, and brought together Leprosy, Case Management NTD and Public Health Experts from WHO African Region as well as NTD/NPOs from 7 WHO country Offices (Ethiopia, DRC, Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Bangladesh and Indonesia).

Medical teams supported by WHO set up mobile clinics in hard to access areas of north-eastern Nigeria. The teams are called “hard-to-reach” teams (HTR) because their mission is to reach remote and insecure areas to provide urgently needed care to populations deprived of essential health services. The 8-year conflict has caused widespread forced displacement and acute food and nutrition insecurity. Large areas of Borno state, the most-affected state, remain inaccessible to humanitarian assistance.

Brazzaville, 17 February 2017 - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) held a bilateral meeting at the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) Secretariat in Brazzaville on 16-17 February 2017 to take stock of progress in implementing their partnership agreement, discuss lessons learnt and map out the way forward. The meeting was attended by Senior Management from the African Union Commission, WHO AFRO and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern and Mediterranean Region (WHO EMRO).

Abuja, 16 February 2017 - Today, the Executive Governors of Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Kebbi and Sokoto joined the Honorable Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole in signing a 70 million Euro European Union grant to support the health sector in Nigeria.

No-one is more vulnerable than a new born baby, and more in need of quality care. They are totally dependent on their mothers, who in turn rely on skilled doctors and nurses with working equipment in decent buildings. In Malawi, as in other countries in this region, we urgently need to improve the quality of this care, or place these fragile lives in danger.

The Governments of Malawi and eight other countries from Africa and South East Asia have committed to halve maternal, new-born and stillborn births. The commitment comes at a time Malawi and eight other countries launch the Network on the improvement of quality of care for maternal, neonatal and child health.

14 February 2017, Juba, South Sudan - Despite the ongoing complex humanitarian crises in South Sudan, the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the Ministry of Health and partners are responding to the latest cholera outbreak in the former Jonglei and Lakes States. The outbreak of cholera was first detected in June 2016 and since then 5 006 cholera cases and 99 deaths (CFR 1.98%) have been reported from 12 Counties in nine states countrywide.