Abuja, 03 February 2017-In 2016 - Nigeria recorded disease outbreaks such as Lassa fever, poliomyelitis, cholera and measles. Equally, the scale of humanitarian crisis in the northeast was uniquely different due to the nature of insurgency in the region with 6.9 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

As Nigeria focuses on achieving better health outcomes beyond 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) organized a 2-day annual staff retreat in Abuja to align its strategies with the government of Nigeria, leveraging on WHO’s technical comparative advantage to strengthen health systems and support primary healthcare (PHC) revitalization across the country. 

Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, the WHO country Representative (WR), explained that the staff retreat provided an opportunity to reflect on key cross cutting thematic areas, review of performance of WHO country office (WCO) in 2016, deliberate on lessons learnt and agree on prioritized actions for 2017.  The three thematic areas (Humanitarian crisis response in northeast  in light of the transition plan; donor engagement with the view of enhancing local resource mobilization efforts and Government’s PHC revitalization programme and the role WHO could play) were identified for in-depth reflection and discussion. 

Essentially, the retreat aimed to clarify WHO’s role in stimulating the achievement of functional health infrastructure for attaining universal health coverage. 

Lessons learnt on humanitarian crisis and outbreak response 

The consensus during the retreat was that there exists a strong in-country capacity to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the northeast as well as other emergencies. It was resolved that WCO to increase its presence at the operational level through an all-inclusive approach and rotation of staff which also gives opportunity to build internal capacity. Participants at the meeting also noted that strong partnership such as collaboration with the military is critical to reaching inaccessible areas for polio eradication.

Synthesis of priorities for current year

After revision and further discussions on achievements of 2016 and lessons learnt, cluster leaders and programme managers proffered recommendations and priorities for 2017 aimed at achieving   high- impact support to the government, partners and donors.

Dr Alemu was confident that “The synthesized priorities will enable WHO to continue its coordination role across various health platforms by capitalizing on areas of comparative advantage to produce optimal results by working as “One WCO” across the clusters and based on mutual understanding and commitment to each other”. 

Specific priorities for achieving results in 2017 include:
Achieve interruption of wild poliovirus (WPV) circulation by focusing on inaccessible and high-risk populations for vaccination and surveillance. Interrupting WPV circulation is the organization’s ultimate goal and remains the single most important priority of WCO.    
Further enhance the position of the country office to collectively support government through focused advocacy and brokerage as well as persuasive evidence for improved health outcome in Nigeria
Support the FMOH agenda on the revitalization of PHC by leveraging on the best practices and lessons learnt from polio using the transition plan as an entry point
Strengthening integration of WHO interventions in service packages being implemented through emergency response in the North East.
In conclusion, the WR mentioned that the outcome of the retreat was germane to the goal of strategically positioning WHO to achieve its core mandate across the programmatic areas. He added that WHO will continue supporting the government of Nigeria and health partners by scaling up appropriate public health interventions for health impact.

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For more information, please contact: 

Technical contact:

Dr Rex Mpazanje; Tel: +234 803 638 9632; Email:   mpazanjer [at] who.int" target="_blank">  mpazanjer [at] who.int
Media contact:

Ms  Charity Warigon; Tel: +234 810 221 0093; Email:  warigonc [at] who.int" target="_blank"> warigonc [at] who.int 

Below:

01. Dr Alemu (4th from left) and management staff at the 2017 annual retreat in Abuja

02. Dr Alemu addressing staff at the retreat