By Kemo Cham
The West African Health Organization (WAHO) has commemorated the 32 year anniversary of its establishment with calls for member countries to strive towards the realization of a key health target of the sub-region – allocation of at least 15 percent of national budgets to health.
WAHO’s Director General in a statement marking the day also called on government of the 15-member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to empanel multi-sectoral platforms to address pressing health issues such as Malaria, a leading killer disease in the region.
WAHO, established by an ECOWAS protocol on 9 July, 1987, is the specialized institution for health issues on the region. Its mandate is to help achieve the bloc’s objective of regional integration through health.
WAHO’s core mandate is to ensure protection of the health of the people through harmonization of policies of the member states, pooling of resources cooperation among each other for collective and strategic response to emerging health issues.
Prof. Stanley Okolo, Director General of the agency, said the present health landscape of the region remains a mixed one. He noted that while the region’s population is healthier today than it was over 30 years ago, with high rates of childhood immunization and stronger health networks, the region is still battling recurrence of epidemics like Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever and Meningitis.
“Too many of our women still die during childbirth and too many children do not live to beyond their 5th birthday. Preventable illnesses remain a scourge at all levels,” Prof. Okolo said in a statement coinciding with the day on July 9.
The statement lamented that despite Malaria has been eliminated in several parts of the world, its’s still rampant in West Africa where it is responsible for four out of five deaths of all children under the age of five.
WAHO’s concerns include high rise in cases of Non-Communicable Diseases, like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Proliferation of fake medicines and the reliance on imported medications are also a major concern or the agency.
According to Prof. Okolo, there is an urgent need for action on these issues.
To address them, the regional health organization is focusing on five major thematic areas as agreed by Health Ministers of the region in a recent meeting – the health of women, children and adolescent; the control of epidemics and NCDs, including work on the elimination of malaria; improving access to affordable high quality medicines and vaccines; pursuit of quality standards in healthcare; and regular collation and publication of accurate, region-specific health statistics. Dr Okolo said achieving all these depends on availability of human capacity, network coordination, and adequate health financing. He said while efforts have been made in the realization of some of these, more action is required.
“Within the major thematic areas of focus for our overall work, key issues that will engage us in the short to medium term include helping as many countries as possible move from control to elimination of malaria, agreeing a common drugs registration arrangement for all our 15 countries in order to attract regional manufacture of pharmaceuticals, and operationalization of a human capital strategy, particularly as it relates to leadership and governance in health in order to maximize the value of every single dollar that goes into health in the region,” he stated.
© 2019 Politico Online
