- Mr. Chairman - Honourable Minister of Health Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu
- Distinguished Heads of Country Delegations
- Excellencies Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Representatives of International Cooperation Agencies,
- Distinguished representatives of development partners,
- Distinguished representatives of non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs)
- Distinguished representatives of pharmaceutical companies,
- Distinguished Guests, participants and experts,
- Members of the Media,
- Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour and privilege for me to address this assembly on the occasion of the 16th session of the Joint Action Forum (JAF), the governing board of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC).
I would first of all like to express our profound gratitude to the government and people of Nigeria for their generous offer to host this session of the JAF. I warmly welcome the honourable Ministers of Health representing governments and people of APOC countries.
This year, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control commemorates 15 years, and it is with great pleasure that I acknowledge the presence of the same donors and partners who were at the launch of this programme in Washington DC 15 years ago. With your support APOC has made significant achievements in river blindness control.
Indeed the programme has been hailed as one of the leading public health successes in Africa with proven evidence that elimination of river blindness in Africa using ivermectin is feasible. APOC has progressed beyond its original mandate of controlling river blindness to focus on the elimination of the disease.
In this regard I am delighted to mention Equatorial Guinea’s success in the elimination of the river blindness vector in the Island of Bioko. This inspiring attainment injects renewed energy into efforts to eliminate river blindness in the Region.
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests
Dear participants,
The current health situation in Africa continues to be a matter of great concern in spite of the slight improvements towards achieving the MDGs. The Region is dominated by the double burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases as well as high maternal and infant mortality rates. Maternal mortality ratio decreased from 910 per 100 000 live births in 1990 to 620 in 2008. At this rate, reaching the MDG5 target by 2015 is unlikely in most of the countries in the African Region.
The under-five mortality rate dropped from 182 per thousand live births in 1990 to 142 in 2008. It is decreasing at an average rate of 1.4% per year, much slower than the 8% per year needed to achieve MDG4 by 2015. Furthermore neglected tropical diseases also affect an estimated one billion people worldwide with over 50% of them in Africa.
Weak health systems have been a hurdle to scaling-up coverage of essential public health interventions. The 2008 Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health Systems in Africa brought a renewed focus on the implementation of principles and values of social justice, equity, community participation and inter-sectoral actions, which could improve health outcomes in Africa.
I would like to seize this opportunity to acknowledge Nigeria’s National Strategic Health Development Plan which has been recently signed by His Excellency the President. I wish to express our support to this very important tool that should bring together all health partners, under the leadership of the Federal Minister of Health, towards the implementation of the national health policy, and the attainment of the highest possible level of health for the people of Nigeria.
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests
Dear participants,
Attaining the health-related Millennium Development Goals will require sustained partnerships and inter-sectoral collaboration. Although in the past few years, there have been an increasing number of international health initiatives for Africa, I would like to emphasize that Governments are the leaders and key actors of development. Taking into account the global financial crisis, I am pleading with African governments for a more efficient management of health resources and ensure adequate allocation of domestic resources to the health sector. Health systems should be redesigned to empower communities to bridge the gap between policies and implementation at the local level.
The Community-Directed Treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) adopted by APOC in 1997 has demonstrated that health programmes and health interventions can be effectively implemented when governments and communities are empowered to take ownership and responsibility. Starting with only four projects in 1996, APOC has scaled up its operations, and today there are CDTI projects operating in 91% of the APOC area, protecting millions of people. This is an important achievement. Likewise strong partnership with communities has contributed to the significant progress in reducing as much as 97% of poliomyelitis cases in Nigeria during the last twelve months. This has been a great achievement that requires sustained efforts to stop the transmission of wild poliovirus.
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests
Dear participants,
In response to JAF’s request last year, an external mid term evaluation of APOC’s progress has been conducted and the report is one of the key issues to be discussed during this session. I am particularly looking forward to the outcome of your deliberations as this will help partners and the executing agency make informed decisions about the way forward for the programme after 2015. We must ensure that eliminating river blindness from Africa is a success.
WHO will continue to provide international leadership for health through policy and normative guidance on key public health issues, such as strengthening health systems, health financing, health promotion, disease surveillance and generating evidence and information for health development.
I want to commend the excellent performance of the African Program of Onchocerciasis Control under the very able leadership of Dr Uche Amazigo and her strong dedicated team. This 16th Joint Action Forum will be the last for Dr Amazigo in her current capacity as Director, and on behalf of the World Health Organization, I would like to express my appreciation for the work done and wish her my very best in her retirement.
I cannot end without thanking all of you honourable ministers, development partners, non-governmental development organizations, pharmaceutical companies for your generous contribution to river blindness control in Africa.
Your efforts are helping people to move out of ill-health and poverty, enabling them to improve their quality of life. This is a significant step towards socio-economic development.
On this note I wish you successful deliberations
Thank you.