On 25 April every year, the world comes together to share information and experiences on malaria prevention and control, and to celebrate key milestones achieved in the fight against malaria. The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) commemorated World Malaria Day at Khorixas, in the Kunene region on 14 August 2024 under the global theme “Advancing health equity, gender equality and human rights” and the national theme “Ensuring safe communities with zero malaria”.

As is the case for many Small Island Developing States, Mauritius imports the large majority of the food its population consumes, whilst also relying economically on exporting certain local foodstuffs. Ensuring the safety of its food imports and marketability of its exports is thus of vital importance to the country. The Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security and WHO Mauritius recently convened a workshop for the harmonization the country’s food legislation with Codex standards, an endeavour that carries significant benefits, both in terms of public health and trade opportunities.

Kampala. Uganda’s Ministry Health, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), SEED Global Health and other partners conducted the first ever After-Action Review (AAR) for a mass gathering event in the African Region on 29-30 August 2024. The event reviewed the 2024 Uganda Martyrs commemoration gathering in Kampala. The AAR was facilitated by technical officers from the WHO Africa Regional Emergency Hub in Nairobi.

To enhance Sierra Leone's polio surveillance capacity, a team of Environmental Surveillance (ES) experts from WHO Regional Office for Africa visited the country to support the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Agency (NPHA). The mission focused on improving the performance of Environmental Surveillance (ES) sites in Freetown, considering expansions to other towns, and building the capacity of local sample collectors and supervisors.

Botswana has taken a significant step toward strengthening the governance of biological resources with the development of its National Policy on Access to Human Biological Material and Equitable Benefit-Sharing. This initiative, driven by the Ministry of Health (MoH) with support from the WHO Botswana Country Office, addresses critical gaps in managing biological resources, data sharing, and benefit distribution in healthcare and research.
The policy development process comprised three key phases. 

The Ministry of Health (MoH), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) held an inception meeting with key stakeholders on 27 August 2024 at WHO Country Office to officially launch the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2024/25 country survey.

In Namibia, nearly 35% of women are subjected to intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence.   The majority do not disclose the abuse but may seek health care because of the abuse.  This makes the health sector a critical player in the prevention and response to violence against women.

Environmental Surveillance (ES) was introduced in August 2022 to complement case-based AFP surveillance. The first established site for ES was Gaborone, Glen Valley Wastewater Treatment Site. Through this surveillance, the circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) was detected on October 4, 2022. Following the country risk assessment, a recommendation was made to conduct a nationwide vaccination campaign using the novel polio type 2 polio vaccine (nOPV2) for all children under the age of 7.