9 November 2016, Juba, South Sudan - The Minister of Health, Hon. Dr Riek Gai Kok, the Undersecretary, Dr Makur Matur Kariom; and all the Directors General of the Ministry of Health paid a professional courtesy visit to the World Health Organization Country Office (WHO CO) in Juba South Sudan. This is the first ever visit by the Minister to the WHO CO.

The leadership of the MoH met with WHO staff and the focal points of the H6 agencies (UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP and World Bank) to review ongoing collaboration and explore new ways of strengthening partnership to further improve health outcomes.

This courtesy visit was part of a series of activities embarked by the WCO before and after the July crisis. These activities included assessments of the status of health services, definition of health risks, resources mapping, partner consultations and definition of short term response strategy. 

The delegation was welcomed by the WHO Representative Dr Abdulmumini Usman and expressed his appreciation for the high level cooperation and collaboration with the Ministry. During the meeting, Dr Abdulmumini made a presentation on the overview of the current status of the health situation in South Sudan following the outbreak of crisis and the path to building a resilient health system for South Sudan. During his presentation he highlighted current achievements, the status of critical health interventions, mortality from preventable causes, implications from current performance on health sector risk, factor influencing poor health outcome and the response strategy to ensure delivery of critical health services and to building a resilient health system for South Sudan.

In response to the presentation the Hon. Minister, Dr Kok commended the WHO’s team and appreciated the WCO level of transparency and assistance to identify bottlenecks for a more robust and functional health system for South Sudan. “We appreciate the strong partnership, relation and applaud WHO continued support to the Ministry and people of South Sudan and strategic guidance”.   “The presentation is an eye opener for us and it will form the basis of our future program says Dr Kok. He further went on to say this is a testimony of WHO’s pivotal and potential role to the Ministry in providing technical support. The Minister ceased the opportunity to seek enhancement of contribution for the Boma Health Initiative, the MOH flagship programme for strengthening health systems.

Frank and transparent discussions were held on the achievements and challenges facing the health sector in South Sudan and the need for both the Government and its partners to come together to address health delivery bottlenecks.

At the end of the visit, a joint coordination committee comprising of Six DGs from the Ministry, the WHO and participants from other H6 agencies was formed. The committee is to come up with a detailed proposal on Health Governance for South Sudan as well as practical ways to address bottlenecks in the delivery of health services in South Sudan. A health summit involving all health partners will be convened to adopt the proposal form the committee. In addition, proposals will also be made to operationalize the Boma Health initiative. The Boma Health Initiative is the community based, cost effective services for sustainable health sector development. It is a flagship programme of the MoH.

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For more information please contact: 
Dr Moses Ongom, +211 956 283 515, ongomm [at] who.int
Ms Jemila M. Ebrahim, + 211 950 450 007, ebrahimj [at] who.int        

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01 Cross section of the senior officials at the meeting.

02 Dr Abdulmumini Usman makes a presentation on the overview of the current status of the health situation during the meeting.

03 Senior Ministry of Health officials, WCO staff and focal points of H6 agencies in a group photograph at the meeting.