Abuja, 07 May 2015 - A joint high-level preparatory meeting between the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and the World Health Organization Country Office (WCO) in Nigeria was convened on 05 May, 2015 in Abuja to ensure active and fruitful participation by the Nigerian delegation to the Sixty-Eighth session of the World Health Assembly which opens in Geneva on 18 May, 2015.

The meeting had the presence of the Minister of State for Health, the Permanent Secretary, the Directors of the FMOH, the 34 members of the Nigerian delegation and WCO staff.

The WHO Country Representative, Dr Rui Gama Vaz, made a presentation on the procedures, logistics, provisional agenda and planned side events. He also reminded participants about the objectives and importance of the daily coordination meetings with member states of the African Region.

During discussions, Dr Vaz highlighted once again, the concern over the outstanding payment of assessed contribution by Nigeria, including the contribution to the African Public Health Emergency Fund and requested urgent action before departure of the delegation to the Health Assembly.

The country position papers from each agenda item of the Health Assembly, that was jointly prepared by the FMOH and WHO staff in the last three months were reviewed. The position paper that Nigeria was assigned to present on behalf of the Member States of the African Region on agenda item 15.3, titled: Substandard/spurious/Falsely/Labeled/Falsified Counterfeit medical products was also revised and further inputs made on its content.

The FMOH agreed to assign responsibilities to each member of the delegation to fully participate in the discussions of the different agenda items and present the Nigeria’s position on each of the subjects under discussion, including the participation in the side events and technical briefings.

Both the Minister of Health and the Permanent Secretary congratulated WHO for the support provided in the preparation of the position papers and for the quality of the briefing.

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