By Elbetel Tilahun<\/p>\n
Addis Ababa (AMECO) – The 76th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for Africa (RC76) officially opened today in Addis Ababa, bringing together health ministers and senior officials from the 47 Member States of the WHO African Region.<\/p>\n
The opening ceremony began with the formal welcoming of distinguished guests, followed by the Ethiopian national anthem and a cultural dance performance. Welcome remarks were delivered by Professor Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa. He was followed by M\u00e9decin-Colonel Assa Badiallo Tour\u00e9, Minister of Health and Social Development of Mali and Chairperson of RC76, and Mr. Aboubakri Diaw, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).<\/p>\n
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joined the ceremony virtually. In his address, he highlighted that Africa loses approximately 90 billion dollars each year to illicit financial flows more than the continent receives in official development assistance. He noted that many governments now spend more on servicing external debt than on investing in health, and called for secure, fair and transparent financial systems that would enable Africa to finance the health of its own people. Dr Tedros urged the continent to build a new era defined and financed by Africa for Africa a healthier, safer and fairer continent.<\/p>\n
H.E. Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Dr Mekdes Daba, Minister of Health of Ethiopia, also addressed the gathering. The session was officially opened by H.E. Taye Atske Selassie, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n
The Regional Committee is the highest policy and decision-making body of WHO in the African Region. It meets annually to formulate continental health strategies, adopt joint decisions on disease prevention and control, and review the performance of Member States and the Organization. This year\u2019s session places strong emphasis on digital health systems. A high-level ministerial discussion held on the sidelines has already resulted in a resolution affirming that African countries must take full ownership of their health.<\/p>\n
Other key priorities include sustainable domestic health financing, technology transfer for local production of vaccines and medicines, stronger regulatory systems, and improved resilience against outbreaks such as Ebola. The session is expected to advance strategies that support health sovereignty, pandemic preparedness, and the goals of Agenda 2063.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia is hosting the Regional Committee for the fourth time. The country has recorded significant progress in the health sector, including a marked reduction in maternal and infant mortality since 2000 and antenatal care coverage of 78 percent. Ethiopia will share its experience in primary healthcare with participating Member States. Hosting RC76 also supports the country\u2019s ambition to develop as a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub and strengthens its preparation for the COP32 climate summit in 2027.<\/p>\n
Since its establishment in 1951, the WHO Regional Committee for Africa has contributed to major continental achievements, including the eradication of smallpox in 1980, the certification of wild poliovirus eradication in 2020, the introduction of the malaria vaccine, the strengthening of Africa CDC, a more than 99 percent reduction in Guinea worm transmission, expanded access to HIV treatment, and successful immunization campaigns against yellow fever and measles.<\/p>\n
The 76th session, taking place from 25 to 28 August 2026, is expected to set a clear direction for a more self-reliant and resilient African health agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Elbetel Tilahun Addis Ababa (AMECO) – The 76th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for Africa (RC76) officially opened today in Addis Ababa, bringing together health ministers and senior officials from the 47 Member States of the WHO African Region. The opening ceremony began with the formal welcoming of distinguished guests, followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[759,893,94,48,58,563,51],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-world-wide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2562,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameco.et\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}