Date: 2017-10-20 10:39:41 ID: 1736
The Director General of the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO) Dr Xavier CRESPIN and the Officer-in-charge of the ECOWAS Regional Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention Programme, Dr Clétus ADOHINZIN, from 18 to 19 October 2017, undertook a working visit to the Head Office of KFW based in Frankfurt and to the Headquarters of GIZ in Germany.
These visits are in line with the long cooperation existing between the German government and ECOWAS. Several issues were discussed and the interactions were fruitful.
At KFW, the DG of WAHO, Dr CRESPIN Xavier, thanked the management of this organisation for the good collaboration existing between WAHO and KFW. He underscored the importance WAHO attaches to the implementation of the Regional Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention Programme (RRHP) in the ECOWAS region. He however expresses the wish for the extension of the scope of cooperation into the strengthening of country health systems.
In his turn, the German side thanked WAHO for the visit and expressed satisfaction with the exemplary cooperation between the two institutions. The discussions also centred on the next steps in the establishment of the regional Centre for Disease Control (R-CDC), and epidemics control in the region. On this issue, a financing agreement was signed, covering mainly the strengthening of epidemiological and health surveillance systems, for an amount of 10 million Euros. It is worth noting that this project, which will start at the beginning of 2018, will focus on strengthening the “Laboratory” component of the R-CDC.
Finally, within the context of their cooperation, the two delegations discussed the next mission to Bobo-Dioulasso by the KFW team to study the feasibility of phase V the Regional Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention Programme in the ECOWAS region, and the impending beginning of phase IV of the programme for an amount of 15 Million EUROS.
On the margins of this visit, the Director General of the West Africa Health Organisation held a working session with the GIZ team, comprising Dr Michael Adelhardt, Head of the Division of Health and Social Protection and Dr Susanne Pritze Aliassime, Technical Adviser on health. This meeting enabled the representatives of the two institutions to discuss future prospects of the Regional Support Programme for the prevention of pandemics in the ECOWAS region (RPPP), which GIZ is currently implementing in some ECOWAS countries.