26 Mar - 2014 | Cairo – The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Libyan Ministry of Health formalized the priorities of their ongoing partnership at a signing ceremony held on 20 March 2014. Representatives from both entities signed the documents of the Joint Programme Review Mission (JPRM) 2014-2015 at the National Centre for Disease Control at the Ministry of Health. This followed the completion of collaborative workplans and the establishment of key programme areas in five predefined categories, including communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, promoting health through the life-course, health systems, and preparedness, surveillance and response.

H.E. Dr. Nurideen Abdulhamid Doghman, Libyan Minister of Health, and Dr. Jean Jabbour, WHO Representative for Libya, addressed the audience during the ceremony. Both speeches focused on the importance of collaboration between WHO and the Ministry of Health. The Minister expressed appreciation for the support provided by WHO to the Government of Libya, in particular the productive meetings with Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, and other senior management staff. The ceremony was also attended by Dr. Badereddin Alnnajar, General Director of the National Centre for Diseases Control, Mr. Mohamed Daganee, Director of Health Information and Documentation Centre, and Dr. Khaled Etaleb, Director of International Cooperation Office, as well as by Heads of Offices from the Ministry of Health and National Centre for Diseases Control.

During the operational planning process and the development of workplans, a “bottom-up” approach was applied for the first time in preparation for the upcoming biennium, 2016-2017. Priorities as well as related activities were identified under predefined categories, in line with the resolution on operational planning by the Fifty-ninth session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean.

The ceremony was followed by a press conference that covered many important health-related topics, such as the mechanism for identifying priorities, the role of WHO in the national polio campaign, and the international organization’s surveillance and response to cases of influenza A (H5N1) among poultry in Tobruk, in eastern Libya, in the month of March.