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Statement
from Office of the WHO Representative in Zimbabwe
World
Health Organization (WHO)
November 17, 2006 Reference
is made to the editorial of the Daily Mirror of 14th
November 2006 entitled "the hypocrisy of international organizations".
The editorial
states that "The World Health Organization (WHO) has been in
the process of pulling out of Zimbabwe, deciding instead to relocate
its country headquarters to Republic of Congo, Brazzaville".
We want to state
the following facts:
- The World
Health Organization has Representational Offices in all 46 member
states of the WHO African Region including Zimbabwe. The WHO has
never at any moment considered relocating the World Health Organization
Country Office of Zimbabwe to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.
The WHO Country Office will continue to serve the people of Zimbabwe
as it has done since independence in 1980.
- The Headquarters
for WHO Regional Office for Africa is located in Brazzaville,
Republic of Congo. Because of civil unrest in that country in
1996 the WHO Regional Office for Africa was relocated to Harare
in Zimbabwe. In 2002 a meeting of the WHO Regional Committee for
Africa made a decision to return the WHO Regional Office back
to Brazzaville, Congo as peace had returned to that country. A
gradual process of return has been in progress since that date
and will be finalized by the end of December 2006.
In the process
of decentralization to bring technical support close to countries,
the WHO Regional Office for Africa has established three sub-regional
offices as follows
a. Located in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to provide technical support to 17 countries
in West Africa
b. Located
in Libreville, Gabon to provide technical support to 11 countries
of that region in Central Africa
c. Located
in Harare, Zimbabwe to provide support to 18 countries in Eastern
and Southern Africa
These sub-regional
offices are now operational and a number of technical staff have
already been deployed to the offices including Harare in Zimbabwe.
The World Health
Organization is not part of the Global Fund. The functions of WHO
cannot therefore be linked directly or indirectly to decisions of
the Global Fund.
It is therefore
regrettable that the Daily Mirror decided to publish such a misleading
editorial. WHO remains fully committed to serving the people of
Zimbabwe as it has done since independence in 1980.
Issued by
Dr E K Njelesani
World
Health Organization Representative in Zimbabwe
World Health
Day 2006 – Working together for health!!
2006 Year
of Acceleration of Prevention of HIV in the African Region
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