Seychelles, WHO sign biennial workplan worth US $957,874 |15 February 2022

Dr Tembo and Minister Vidot sign the document (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

By Vidya Gappy

Seychelles and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have signed a joint two-year programme budget for 2022-2023 worth US $957,874.

The Minister for Health, Peggy Vidot, signed on behalf of the Seychelles government while the interim representative of the WHO in Seychelles, Dr Susan Tembo, signed for the world health body.

The signing ceremony was held yesterday at the Red Roof Building, Seychelles Hospital, in the presence of the chief executive of the Health Care Agency, Dr Danny Louange; the acting Public Health Commissioner, Dr Meggy Louange; the principal secretary for health, Dr Bernard Valentin; among other senior health officials.

The sum extended to Seychelles by WHO over the next two years will be used to finance agreed activities of the joint programme which will be universal health coverage with a view to improving access to quality essential health services for all; addressing health emergencies; improving health and well-being; improving health promotion; strengthening capacity for data management and innovation and strengthening leadership governance and administration, Minister Vidot noted.

Dr Tembo noted that the WHO has shared a rich history on partnership and collaboration for health priorities with its member states at the global, regional and national level. As the lead agency for international health, WHO remains the secretariat for the Ministry of Health, with the core responsibility of advising governments on promoting health, keeping the world safe and serving the vulnerable.

“In this line, every two years, the decision-making bodies of the World Health Assembly makes available funding to member states through WHO biennial workplan, to support the overall health development agenda. This government-WHO strategy being signed today provides a clear framework for WHO’s technical cooperation with the government of Seychelles for the year 2022-2023. All activities to be supported through this plan are line with the Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13); one of WHO’s transformational shift to collectively drive public health impact, track progress towards the sustainable development goals and deliver on the triple billion targets to ensure that a billion more people have health coverage, protect them from health emergencies, provide them with better health and well-being as well as other cross-cutting issues including data and innovation and research,” Dr Tembo said.

She added that in addition to the funding made available with the signing of this workplan, WHO remains committed to providing additional financial and technical support to implement other solid strategies and innovations to achieve health goals.

In the same line, Minister Vidot thanked the WHO for its continuous and crucial support “both financially and technically for the last two years. The amount received from WHO is more than our actual budget we receive from the government and the activities on which we agreed upon are aligned to our strategic plan within the ministry. We hope that with the assistance of the WHO we hope to be able to help each Seychellois. As a small island, Seychelles is constraint in giving all the help required by our population and WHO has always been assisting us. We are also grateful for the assistance received by WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic, even at a time when the organisation is trying to find innovative ways and means to make itself more financially sustainable.

Vidya Gappy