Fiji Appointed as Vice-chair for the WHO Regional Committee Meeting

Last Updated on 2 years by Publishing Team

06-10-20

The WHO Regional committee meeting for the Western Pacific Region commenced this morning where Fiji was elected as the Vice-chair of the Regional committee meeting.

This reflects the enormous work Fiji has done in terms of providing a vigilant health service delivery as the COVID-19 global pandemic is gripping the world.

In Fiji’s Response to the Regional Directors Address to the Western Pacific Regional committee meeting, Chief Medical Advisor, MOH, Dr. Jemesa Tudravu said that Fiji is committed to ensuring that all vulnerable groups’ health needs are met and asks WPRO to share information on successful strategies across the region.

“While COVID-19 is novel and requires substantial resourcing, the normative functions of Health Ministries such as Vaccination programs especially in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) must continue to be supported. We call on WHO and Development partners to also support these important normative health functions for our nations”, Dr. Tudravu Said.

He further mentioned that Fiji has proceeded with remodeling our Health services akin to a business re-engineering process and requires accurate and timely data collected and analyzed by robust information systems that contribute to planning and implementation.

“We thank the support of the Division of Pacific Technical Support and acknowledge the wisdom in relocating the Regional Office’s Director of Administration and Finance to the WHO office in Fiji as an important step in decentralizing decision making for effective collaboration and response to health services needs of the region”.

We have become better collaborators through this pandemic and WHO’s help, in particular, the WHO office in Suva, Fiji, providing us with expertise and support, has been crucial to our success. Our achieving COVID-contained status has also meant the protection of WHO staff in Fiji together with all other high-ranking officials of diplomatic missions, UN agencies, and international organizations based in Fiji. We call on WHO and partners’ continuous support for Fiji and member states towards NCD, Climate Change and Health, and also Safe & Affordable Surgery.

Health Minister Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete also congratulated the Regional Director and WHO Western Pacific Regional Office team for your exemplary service and leadership during one of the most challenging years for global and regional health services