Glimmer of Hope From the Health Financing Workshop: Accelerating the Process of Resource Mobilization and Pooling

Brazzaville, 14 April 2006 -- The health financing workshop held in Brazzaville, Congo from 11 to 13 April 2006, has ended on a note of hope in the light of the recommendations contained in the Regional Health Financing Strategy that commits countries to adhere to the commitment made by African Heads of States to allocate 15% of national budgets to health.

Brazzaville, 11 April 2006 -- On the invitation of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, experts from regional and international organizations have gathered in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, to develop a strategy for health financing in Africa. The strategy will guide countries in the ways and means to strengthen health financing and, for that matter, health systems performance.

Brazzaville/Nairobi/Addis Ababa, 9 April 2006 -- In an attempt at stepping up the pace of HIV prevention in the continent, the AU and United Nations system in Africa will on Tuesday 11 April 2006 launch “the Acceleration of Prevention of HIV Initiative in the African Region” in Addis Ababa, Johannesburg, Ouagadougou and Khartoum. This is a follow up to the Declaration by the African Ministers of Health in 2005 to declare 2006 as a “Year for Acceleration of HIV Prevention” in the African Region, and called on Member States to intensify HIV prevention efforts.

Brazzaville, 7 April 2006 -- The World Health Organization has called for a better deal for African health workers with a view to motivating and retaining them.

“Little attention has been paid to the people who actually deliver health care in our Region,” said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, in a message to mark World Health Day observed worldwide on 7 April. “For too long, the health workforce has been ignored, left to toil and struggle in silence. This cannot continue.”

The Sub Regional Conference on the Global Health Workforce Alliance Calls for Evidence Based Strategies to Tackle the Human Resources for Health Crisis

Brazzaville, 27 March 2006-- A workshop jointly organized by the African Union Commission (AU) and WHO on the protection of intellectual property rights related to traditional medicine ended Friday in Brazzaville with the adoption of an operational consensus document : Policy and Legislative Guidelines for the Protection and Promotion of Traditional and Indigenous Medical Knowledge in Africa.

Libreville, 22 March 2006 -- “To show a firm political commitment at the highest level of government and to ensure multisectoral coordination at supra-ministerial level for the development of plans, mobilization of resources, the implementation and monitoring of plans in close collaboration with community based organizations, civil society, nongovernmental organizations and other sectors”.

Brazzaville, 21 March 2006 -- How should African Traditional Medical Knowledge be protected?

This is the central question being considered by more than 60 experts including lawyers, conventional and traditional health practitioners, researchers, public health specialists and scientists, among others, who on Tuesday began a four-day workshop in Brazzaville, Congo.

Libreville, 20 March 2006 -- The President of Gabon, El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba has called the attention of the international community to the challenge posed by the emergence of the virus that causes avian influenza. President Omar Bongo made this call at the opening of the regional meeting of the United Nations systems on the avian influenza situation in Africa.