Health Ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have reiterated their commitment to the process of establishing the Regional Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control with its headquarters in Nigeria, in line with the decision taken by the 47th Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government held in Accra, on 19 May 2015.
Rising from its 17th Ordinary Assembly on April 8, 2016, in Bissau, the ministers also unanimously adopted the 2015 Annual Report of WAHO.
The Assembly presided over by the Minister of Public Health of Guiné-Bissau, Dr. Cadi SEIDI, approved the resolution on the appointment of Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control for 2016-2017.
In attendance were the Director General of WAHO, Dr. Xavier CRESPIN; Senegal’s Ambassador to Guinea Bissau, H.E. Major General Bakary SECK, representing the Minister for Health and Social Welfare of Senegal and Chairperson of the Assembly of ECOWAS Health Ministers, Prof. Awa Marie Coll SECK.
The communique issued at the end of the meeting reads further:
The Health Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring the prompt operations of the Regional Centre in adherence to the regulatory framework adopted by the 75th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers held in Abuja on 13 and 14 December 2015 and endorsed by the 48th Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government held in Abuja on 16 and 17 December 2015.
The Health Ministers acknowledged the key role that the relevant Community Regulation assigns to the National Coordinating Institutions and laboratories, for the purpose of ensuring maximum efficiency of the epidemic control interventions of the ECOWAS Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control.
The Health Ministers undertook to formally appoint the National Coordinating Institutions, as part of the establishment of the Regional Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control of ECOWAS. They also committed themselves to ensuring that the functions and duties of the appointed national structures match the requirements of the Regional Centre’s operations.
They urged WAHO and all Technical and Financial Partners to make every effort to expedite networking with the Regional Centre for all the National Coordinating Institutions.
The Health Ministers reaffirmed the huge importance of laboratories for epidemic control in the region and urged WAHO and all Technical and Financial Partners to get involved in the networking of the region’s laboratories at different levels.
The Health Ministers also noted the relevance of creating an ECOWAS Regional Rapid Response Team with a view to ensuring appropriate and effective regional response in the event of an epidemic outbreak in the countries.
They undertook therefore, to proceed with the signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding on conditions for the induction and deployment of the ECOWAS Regional Rapid Response Team within the framework of epidemic control”.
The Health Ministers requested the ECOWAS Commission to provide WAHO the necessary resources for the operations of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control (ECOWAS/RCDC).
They called on Technical and Financial Partners to maintain and intensify their support to Member States as well as WAHO in the establishment of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control and its effective start-up of operations.
They undertook to pursue and intensify advocacy for the consolidation of WAHO’s leadership to enable the organization perform its role to the fullest.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministers deferred the consideration of the draft resolutions below to the next meeting:
a) The draft resolution on the harmonisation of nomenclatures and institutional anchoring of National Directorates responsible for Family and Reproductive Health in Health Ministries.
Present were Health Ministers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guiné-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra-Leone and Togo.
The next Ordinary Meeting of the Assembly of Health Ministers of ECOWAS will hold in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2017.
