New Delhi | 4 October 2024: The health ministers and officials from Member States of WHO South-East Asia Region are meeting here next week to deliberate on key priorities and actions to accelerate public health in the Region, home to a quarter of the world’s population and disproportionate burden of disease, many of them preventable and treatable.
The Seventy Seventh Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia, the annual governing body meeting of WHO in the Region. Expected to attended by health ministers and health officials from across the Region and representatives of global and regional partner organizations.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Regional Director Saima Wazed. And other WHO officials will at meeting held from 7 to 9 October.
A ministerial round table at the Regional Committee Session will discuss adolescent-responsive health systems to meet the unique needs of this population group that accounts for 27% of the Region’s population.
Like every year, the Regional Committee will review the progress made towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
The Regional Committee will also deliberate on expansion of the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF). The fund established in 2008 to support lifesaving response measures in the immediate aftermath of a public health emergency. Till date it has supported 49 health emergencies in 10 countries. Since 2016, the SEARHEF has also been supporting emergency preparedness.
The meeting will also discuss progress reports on resolutions from the previous Regional Committee sessions. These include traditional medicines; strengthening health workforce education and training; and intensifying activities for dengue control and malaria elimination. The resolution on decade of action to end viral hepatitis, HIV and STIs; universal access to people centered health care and services; progress and acceleration plan for non-communicable diseases and advancing health emergency preparedness and response in the Region.
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During the session, countries will also be felicitated for their recent advancements and achievements in public health
