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Executive Summary

The Regional Director is pleased to present this report on the work of WHO in the African Region for the period July 2017 to June 2018. The reporting period includes part of the last year of the WHO Programme Budget 2016-2017 and the first year of the WHO Programme Budget 2017-2018. The report outlines the significant results achieved under the six categories of work of the 12th General Programme of Work, which ends in December 2018. It reflects the contributions made by WHO country offices and the Regional Office, including the Intercountry Support Teams, in collaboration with partners, in supporting health development in Member States of the WHO African Region.

The report also highlights some of the key achievements made in implementing “The Transformation Agenda of the World Health Organization Secretariat in the African Region; 2015-2020”, launched by the Regional Director in February 2015 and endorsed by the WHO Regional Committee for Africa at its Sixty-fifth session in September 2015. The Transformation Agenda seeks to make the WHO Secretariat in the African Region more responsive, effective, efficient and accountable in providing the best possible support to Member States, and has served as a programme for accelerating the implementation of WHO reform in the African Region. It is also informing the efforts by the new WHO Director-General to transform WHO at the global level into an organization that is better equipped to deliver improvements in health to the world’s citizens.

The report demonstrates how continued progress has been made in key areas of the Transformation Agenda, including improving the capacity of WHO and Member States to detect and rapidly respond to the multiple epidemics the Region experiences; the move towards universal health coverage (UHC) as part of efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and the push towards making the Secretariat of the WHO African Region more pro-active, results-driven and appropriately resourced to deliver on its mandate to serve Member States in attaining the highest possible level of health.

There is improved delivery and an emerging organizational culture change, including openly addressing harassment and creating a respectful work environment. After three years, we are seeing fundamental shifts in our ways of working, thinking and engaging with others; there is increased accountability, effectiveness and transparency; and we are starting to show results in countries. A detailed report on the Transformation Agenda – “The Transformation Agenda of the World Health Organization in the African Region: Delivering Results and Making an Impact” – published and disseminated at the Seventyfirst World Health Assembly in May 2018, is also being presented to the Regional Committee.

In presenting this report to the Sixty-eighth session of the Regional Committee, I extend my sincere thanks for the dedicated and collective efforts of Member States, partners and WHO staff across the Region who have given unwavering support during this period of significant transformation.

WHO in the African Region is committed to working with Member States and partners to make a measurable impact on the health of all people in Africa towards achieving UHC and the SDGs. I am confident that together, we will achieve improved health and well-being and a better, more prosperous future for all people in the African Region.