WHO top hierarchy to hold first meeting in Nigeria

The top hierarchy of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Policy Group (GPG) will hold a meeting in the country for the first time this week.

A statement from the Federal Ministry of Health yesterday said the GPG membership is made up of the Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Deputy DirectorGeneral, six regional directors and the Executive Director of the WHO Emergencies Programme.

The group is an internal advisory mechanism to the Director-General (DG), established to ensure the coherent implementation of decisions, policies and strategies of WHO across all levels of the Organization.

The statement quoted the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, as saying “Nigeria is honored to host the Director General and Regional Directors of WHO at this auspicious time”.

Professor Isaac Adewale said the presence of WHO’s top decision makers provides opportunity for Nigeria to strengthen collaboration organisation.

The WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and regional directors are expected to pay visit President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him on laudable efforts to improve the health and well-being of Nigerians, and the commendable aspiration of reaching over 100 million Nigerians with basic minimum package of primary healthcare services.

Dr Tedros will carry out a full programme of activities including field visits to relevant health agencies such as Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Revitalized Model Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Kuchingoro, Abuja and to also hold discussions with, high-ranking government officials and key stakeholders.

The discussions will focus on WHO’s technical support to strengthen the country’s health system to achieve the health related Sustainable Development Goals within the context of revitalization of PHC for universal health coverage and humanitarian response in the Northeast. with the