Brazzaville, 16 August 2011 - The sixty-first session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa is to be held from 29 August to 2 September 2011 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire.

This year’s meeting of the Regional Committee, WHO’s Governing Body in the African Region, will discuss among others, a report on the work of WHO in the African Region, to be presented by the Regional Director, Dr Luis Sambo.

High on the agenda of the meeting is WHO’s Programme Budget for the 2012 – 2013 biennium, and orientations for its implementation in the Region.

Other major agenda items are  the establishment of a US$100 million African Public Health Emergency Fund,  proposed by Dr Sambo and approved by the Ministers at their  sixtieth session  in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea,  in 2010; and reform of  WHO at headquarters, regional and national levels.

The inaugural meeting and launch of the African Federation of Public Health Associations is also expected to be held during the five-day meeting, as is a  roundtable discussion on sharing experiences in securing funding to achieve national health development goals.

The Ministers will also discuss progress made in the African Region in the areas of:  polio eradication;  implementing the road map for accelerating attainment of the Millennium Development Goals related to maternal and newborn health;  the implementation of a Regional Strategy on Health Promotion,  adopted ten years ago; the implementation of an earlier Regional Committee resolution on accelerated malaria prevention  and control, and progress made in ten years of the Declaration of the Traditional Medicine Decade in Africa in 2011.

The Regional Committee is made up of Health Ministers from the 46 countries which constitute the African Region of WHO.   Its principal brief is to review WHO’s work in the Region and provide guidance on suggested actions to improve the health situation in Member States. Some Ministers of Finance from Member States are also expected to attend the meeting

Media contact:   Cam [at] afro.who.int (Cam[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)

WHO Regional Office for Africa, P.O Box 6, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo  

Tel: +47 241 39100