The 68th session of the WHO Regional Committee (RC) for Africa opens today in Dakar, Senegal.

Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya is leading the Zambian delegation at the annual RC meeting which brings together health ministers from the 47 Member States in the WHO African Region and is the highest WHO Governing Body on the continent.

The current 68th session (RC68) will run from the 27th to 31st August 2018 at the King Fahd Palace Hotel.

RC68 is taking place at a critical moment and will discuss important issues such as the WHO African Regional Office (WHO/AFRO) Programme Budget 2020/21, the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO/AFRO Transformation Agenda, sustainable financing for Universal Health Coverage (UHC), frameworks for certification of polio eradication and control of cholera among other important topics.

During the meeting Zambia will participate in the on-going discussions about the WHO reforms streaming from its transformation agenda, progress made towards attainment of Universal Health Coverage, strategic direction in addressing the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, and control and elimination of cholera in Zambia by 2025.

At the same meeting, the WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti will present a report on the work of WHO in the Region from 2017 to 2018.

Furthermore, the delegates will review the Progress Report on the Implementation of the Transformation Agenda of the World Health Organization Secretariat in the African Region: 2015–2020 and a report on the resource mobilization efforts through strengthening partnerships to better support to Member States.

A draft global strategy on health, environment and climate change and a document on ensuring sustainable financing for UHC in Africa in the midst of changing global and local economic factors will also be presented and discussed.

The delegates will be presented with six progress reports on utilizing eHealth solutions; the African Health Observatory; the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria; the Global Health Sector Strategy for prevention, care and treatment of viral hepatitis; the Global Health Sector Strategy on HIV/AIDS 2016–2021 and the

Framework for implementing the End TB Strategy in the African Region 2016–2020.
This is according to a statement issued to Money FM News by Ministry of Health Head-Media Relations Stanslous Ngosa.