BY NDUMBE BELL GASTON
The World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Public Health, have recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement where the W.H.O. has agreed to support the nation’s political, strategic, and sanitary development plans for the period 2017-2020.
Minister Mama Fouda seated with WHO officials
Minister Andre Mama Fouda and the direct representative of the world Health Organisation Dr. Jean Baptiste Roungou, were accompanied by Cameroon’s Secretary of State incharge of epidemics and pandemics Halim Hayatou, the Secretary General of the Ministry of public Health Sinata Shiro Koulla, technical advisers, directors, and inspectors of the ministry and many other collaborators.
Two presentations were made. One from Dr Engelbert Manga in charge of cooperation with partners at the ministry of public health and the other, followed by Dr. Leonard Mbam Mbam, a consultant of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In his opening address the Minister of Public Health André Mama Fouda revisited the appointment of the Ethiopian, Dr. Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus at the helm of the World Health Organisation and called it a pride for Africa. Expressing his gratitude in the presence of WHO representative, he later distributed in French and in English, all the strategic documents to all the actors for their validation.
For his part, the direct Representative of the WHO Dr. Jean-Baptiste Roungou emphasized that this strategic cooperation was the hub in which reference will be made to all sanitary cooperation issues for the nation in the period 2017-2020, so he implored all participants to be aware of the importance to bring forth a concrete document that will be understood by all to achieve a more harmonious working relationship.
Finally, a consensus was made easier to arrive at, thanks to the Agenda of Transformation from the Regional Secretariat of the WHO for Africa which had been underlined as the priorities of the new Director General from which the objectives presented by Doctor Engelbert Manga, were enumerated and extracted.