Freetown, Sierra Leone – 4 June 2015: The World Health Organization’s new Representative in Sierra Leone, Dr Anders Nordström, today 4 June 2015 presented his credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in Freetown.
Dr Nordström brings to the position 25 years of experience in health and development with a special focus on health systems strengthening. “If health is important to you, this is one of the most important places you can be at right now,” said Dr Nordström, who was previously WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Services as well as acting Director-General of WHO. “A unique opportunity exists in Sierra Leone to bring global political commitments into reality in a country that is primed for a major leap forward,” said Dr Nordström. “I look forward to working with the excellent people in the WHO Sierra Leone Country Office as we support and work together with the government of Sierra Leone and partners to get to zero Ebola cases and to strengthen a long term sustainable and resilient health system”.

Dr Nordström has previously served as the Swedish Ambassador for Global Health. Most recently, he worked as an advisor in the Office of the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Ebola. He has also served at the boards of GAVI, the Global Fund and UNAIDS.

Formally welcoming Dr Nordström, Dr Ebun Strasser-King, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on behalf of the government, expressed appreciation to WHO for its continued support in improving the country’s health systems. Dr Strasser-King pledged the government’s unconditional commitment in providing WHO the required environment for effective operations.

Since taking up the post as WHO Representative for Sierra Leone on 9 April 2015, Dr Nordström has had several high level engagements with national authorities, health sector development partners and has made field visits to several districts. “What has struck me is how closely fighting Ebola is tied to improving the health system,” said Dr Nordström. “The Ebola response is not over, and it is never time to let down our guard, but what I can see is that the systems we need to put in place to prevent another outbreak of this scale are the same efforts we need to put in place to improve overall healthcare delivery systems for the people of Sierra Leone.”

As a medical student, Dr Nordström came to Sierra Leone in 1985 as part of initiating collaboration on child health between Sierra Leone and the Swedish Red Cross.

Dr Nordström succeeds Dr Anshu Banerjee who was interim head of the office from February to April 2015. He is expected to hold the post till 2017.

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