The WHO African Region Convenes

on Monday, 16 November 2015.

The 65th Regional Committee Meeting of the WHO Africa willmeet between 23 - 27th
November, 2015 in Ndjamena, Republic of Chad. Themeeting is taking place later than
usual partly due to security issues in thehost country. I am glad that the Republic
of Chad is able to host the meetingbecause I am informed that the President of Chad
personally chairs a Health meetingevery month and may be the only head of state to
do so in Africa or indeed thewhole world.


AFRICA SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE DRAFT GLOBAL HRH STRATEGY

on Monday, 13 July 2015.

DearColleagues,
Here is ourdiscussion topic for July and August 2015. This week,the World Health
Organization has posted a draft of the proposed GlobalStrategy on Human Resources
for Health (HRH) for an online consultation bysoliciting comments from stakeholders
round the world.  At the same time regional face to faceconsultations have commenced
with the African meeting now taking place inAccra, Ghana. The draft HRH strategy has
four objectives namely (i) Making thebest use of the existing stock of HRH, (ii)
Anticipating future HRH needs,(iii) building capacity for global and national
leadership, governance andmanagement of the HRH, (iv) Ensuring the availability of
HRH data, evidence andknowledge to underpin monitoring and accountability at global
and nationallevel.

A NEW BEGINNING FOR WHO AFRICAN REGION

on Wednesday, 13 May 2015.

The time of the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) is with us again. The preliminary meetings start this week and the formal assembly starts on 18th May,ending on 26th May 2015. I hope all delegations remember our previous discussions on how to prepare for these meetings. In the case of African countries, this year’s WHA will be different in that the WHO Region for Africa will be led by a new Regional Director in the names of Dr. Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, a national of Botswana. Dr. Moeti was elected by the African Regional Committee in Cotonou, Benin last September, confirmed by the WHO Executive Board in January 2015 and took up her office on 1st February, 2015.

MEGA TRENDS EXPECTED IN INTERNATIONAL HEALTH WORKER MIGRATION

on Wednesday, 11 March 2015.

Dear Colleagues,
Here is our discussion topic for March and April 2015. Last week I attended a meeting at WHO Geneva on the WHO Code on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. At this meeting, we heard emphatic statements to the effect that taking account of global demographics along with regional economic integration in many parts of the world, Health Workforce Force (HWF) migration will assume mega trends in the coming decades and will impact
the ability of countries and regions to achieve the Post 2015 Sustainable development Goals.
The sooner we all familiarize ourselves with this Code and start to use it the better our chances and hopes of achieving our health goals.

 

INTRODUCING A NEW BOOK

on Thursday, 18 December 2014.

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that most of you have already heard of the launch of the new book“African Health Leaders; making change and claiming the future” which was first launched in September 2014 during the UN General Assembly in New York. A number of contributions by the Ashgovnet community through this Discussion Forum have made their way into this book with acknowledgements. The book is edited by yours truly Dr. Francis Omaswa and Lord Nigel Crisp
and published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). There are supporting statements from the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Her Excellency Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the Head Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, Dr. Tim Evans. It is available for order online at Amazon and the OUP distribution systems in the countries.
So what is this book about?