Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana will host the annual World Health Organisation (WHO) regional committee for Africa meeting in August.
WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, made the announcement yesterday when she paid a courtesy on President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi.
She said the courtesy call was meant to discuss preparations of the meeting with President Masisi and senior health officials.
Dr Moeti noted that 47 African health ministers and senior officials as well as other partners working in different fields of health would come together to discuss various issues.
She explained that the annual conference focused on health issues affecting the continent and its people.
The meeting, she added, would also discuss future projects aimed at improving the health of Africans.
Hosting the regional committee conference, Dr Moeti said, would afford the country an opportunity to share experiences with other African countries and the whole world.
She said Botswana was one of the African countries where government had greatly invested in health.
“Botswana is one of the countries where health care services are offered for free and government invests a lot in infrastructure and capacity to take care of the health of the people,” she said.
She also added that government had put in place various preventative strategies to combat challenging health conditions.
Dr Moeti said Botswana was the first African country to offer free access to HIV treatment and care, adding the country had over the years successfully addressed some health challenges.
Dr Moeti also said Botswana’s primary health care system was the basis for what was being done to improve the health of the population.
She said hosting the regional committee meeting would afford the country to share its health care experiences, programmes and success stories.
Dr Moeti said although communicable diseases remained a challenge, there was an equally emerging threat of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Therefore, the regional meeting would also include discussions on chronic diseases as they were also challenges.
The WHO regional director for Africa also noted that the world was just emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and that the globe needed to prepare for the next epidemic with similar challenges such as COVID-19.
She said she was proud of what Botswana had done in improving the health of its people.
“There is a lot that Botswana will share with the rest of Africa,” she said.
On other issues, Dr Moeti said President Masisi’s international engagements were opening up opportunities for Batswana globally and in multilateral bodies such as WHO, UN and AU.
She also said as it was the case with human health, the country was doing well in animal health.
She added that some of the strategies that were used in managing animal diseases were successfully implemented to combat COVID-19.
Dr Moeti emphasised that climate change was one of the emerging challenges to human health.
She said strategies used towards combating natural disasters such as drought and health issues had made the country proactive and resilient.
Dr Moeti also commended President Masisi for his Reset and Reclaim Agenda, adding his developmental road map had reshaped the health sector.
For his part, President Masisi assured Dr Moeti that the country was ready to host the meeting saying his government and people were ready to make the conference productive and impactful.
“We will make your team comfortable and put our resources at their disposal as we really want to make it a success,” said President Masisi.
He added that the country was positioning itself to be the hub of international conferences and meetings.
President Masisi also said he was confident the meeting would be successful.
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