L to R Dr Rooney Jagilly, Head of General Surgery, National Referral Hospital, Health Minister Hon. Dr Culwick Togamana, Mrs Pauline McNeil, Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Tony Stewart Quity, Isabel Provincial Health Director.
Health Minister Hon. Dr Culwick Togamana along with Health officials, Mrs Pauline McNeil, Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Rooney Jagilly, Head of General Surgery, National Referral Hospital, and Dr Tony Stewart Quity, Isabel Provincial Health Director are currently in Geneva, Switzerland for the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) that commenced on 21st of May and scheduled to conclude on May 30th.
This week at the WHA the Minister will be delivering country statement on the theme of the 76th World Health Assembly “WHO at 75: Saving lives, driving health for all”., deliver interventions on global strategy on women, children and adolescent health, substandard and falsified medical products, strengthening rehabilitation in health systems, amongst other agendas set forth by the WHA Executive Board (Media Statements on the interventions will be issued).
On Saturday 20th of May, the team attended a sideline event, the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting (CHMM) with the theme, getting Universal Health Coverage in the Commonwealth on track for 2030, where intervention on primary health care and universal health coverage was made (Media statement on this will be issued). The CHMM is the first face to face meeting since the pandemic
Other sideline meetings scheduled for this week includes WHO Western Pacific Region member states meeting, meeting with partners including Global Fund, the worldwide movement to defeat HIV, TB and Malaria and GAVI, the Global Alliance of Vaccines, public-private partnership and multilateral funding mechanisms for expansion of global access to vaccines.
The WHA is the decision- making body of WHO. Held annually in Geneva, Switzerland, the main functions of the WHA are to determine the policies of the organization, appoint the Director General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve proposed programme budget. It is attended by delegations from all WHO member states and focuses on specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board.
This year’s WHA agenda includes Universal Health Coverage, Public Health Emergencies, Health and Wellbeing, effectiveness and efficiency of WHO to support member countries.
-MHMS Press