Morocco selected to join WHO Executive Board for 2022-2025

MOROCCO – The Kingdom of Morocco has been selected to join the World Health Organization’s Executive Board as a representative of the Eastern Mediterranean Group for the term 2022-2025 during the 75^th World Health Assembly held in Geneva.

The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified members in the field of health elected for three-year terms to implement the decisions and policies of the World Health Assembly as well as advice and facilitate its work.

It is a specialized entity within the United Nations (UN) system that is in charge of administering and coordinating global health within the UN system.

With 34 members, the World Health Organization’s Executive Board is the entity in charge of implementing the World Health Assembly’s decisions and directives into action.

Its primary areas of focus include communicable and noncommunicable illnesses, crisis planning, monitoring, and response, as well as life-long health promotion and health system development.

Morocco is the latest African country to join the international entity and other African members of the Board include Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Rwanda and Senegal.

Morocco, which was a contender for one of the two empty seats allotted to the Eastern Mediterranean area, was able to gain the backing of the organization’s member nations.

The election came through the mobilization of the full diplomatic machinery of the government, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection which validates Morocco’s efforts to enhance global health within the World Health Organization.

Moreover, the selection highlights the international community’s faith in Morocco’s prudent strategy for handling its domestic epidemic which is based on proactiveness, solidarity and the primacy of healthy citizens.

Morocco will seek to contribute to the attainment of the “three billion” target, which is based on the World Health Organization’s five-year strategic plan and is dedicated to safeguarding one billion people in the face of catastrophes during the country’s three-year tenure.

This is in addition to providing universal health coverage to one billion people and ensuring that another billion people have improved health and well-being by 2023.

Wake-up call for increased investment in health systems

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe emphasized on importance of having resilient health systems supported by fit for purpose health workforce from production for improved population health outcomes during the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in Geneva.

“Africa, like the rest of the world, is experiencing both demographic and epidemiological transitions, coupled with inherent challenges and opportunities thus efforts must be made to strengthen the health workforce including the community health workers and structures,” Mutahi Kagwe said.

He further said that Kenya has already initiated a host of programmes that seek to address the gap amid a rise in emerging health threats that include non-communicable diseases, increase in antimicrobial resistance as well as re-emerging viruses like Ebola fever.

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