Kwaku Agyeman-Manu speaking at the WAHO opening ceremony.
The West African Health Organization (WAHO) has begun an extraordinary two-day meeting in Accra with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Assembly of Health Ministers, for the adoption of a new regional roadmap for improved health outcomes.
The ‘WAHO Vision 2030’ which has undergone rigorous assessments review and inputs by all ECOWAS member states are expected to be a game-changer in the drive towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
WAHO Director-General, Professor Stanley Okolo, speaking at the opening ceremony said WAHO had a Strategic Plan (2016-2020) which guided the activities of the institution.
He indicated that the plan saw the roll-out of many health interventions including health information and research, access to health, epidemics, disease control, and emergency preparedness, maternal neonatal, child, adolescent, youth, and older people’s health as well as technical and financial support to countries.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, prevented WAHO from presenting a new Strategic Plan for Adoption in 2021.
“It is, however, in keeping with our mandate at WAHO in a rapidly evolving health ecosystem that we embarked on developing this strategic framework, facilitated by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI)” he said.
Professor Okolo said the WAHO Vision 2030 is framed around three main goals; to accelerate access to and availability of inclusive and affordable quality health services; to ensure effective public health emergency preparedness and response capabilities across the ECOWAS Region and; to strengthen WAHO’s institution processes and promote organizational excellence.
Chair of the Assembly of Health Ministers and Minister of Health, Ghana, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, commended Professor Okolo for showing great leadership in the development of the WAHO ‘Vision 2030’which aligns directly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said Ghana has launched the revised National Health Policy and Universal Health Coverage roadmap in a show of its commitment to ensuring no one is left behind.
“This new WAHO Vision 2030 document has thus come at an opportune time as it will afford us the chance to align our next Health Sector Medium-Term Development Plan to achieve policy coherence and better efficiency,” he said.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu used the platform to encourage his colleague Ministers of Health to align their national policy and strategic frameworks to the regional document to achieve policy coherence and better efficiency in managing health systems.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri