Juba, 27 April 2020 – Dr Olushayo Olu, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for South Sudan paid a courtesy call on Honorable Elizabeth Acuei Yol, Minister of Health.

During the call, Dr Olu congratulated the Honorable Minister on her appointment and conveyed the Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti greetings.

Dr Olu and the Honorable Minister of Health, both renewed their commitment to support the health sector in South Sudan.

Honorable Minister appreciated the courtesy call and acknowledged the tremendous work done by WHO towards strengthening the health sector in South Sudan and commended WHO for the good working relationship and support provided to the Ministry of Health and the people of South Sudan.

Dr Olu thanked the Honorable Minister for the warm welcome and reassured the Minister of the unwavering commitment and support of WHO to the Ministry of Health.  

He highlighted the work of WHO in South Sudan through its core functions – capacity building, setting norms and standards, monitoring trends and in different program areas such as the expanded programme on immunization (EPI), health systems strengthening.

He also emphasized WHO’s humanitarian work through emergency preparedness and response and service delivery in emergencies including the work done in Ebola virus disease preparedness and the ongoing COVID-19 response under the leadership of the Ministry of Health.

Dr Olu reiterated WHO’s commitment to support the ongoing COVID-19 response through providing technical guidance to the National Steering Committee and the Technical Secretariat of the High Level Task Force, continued support to addressing health emergencies and promoting healthier populations to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG3).

The Ministry of Health and WHO discussed on the ongoing work to increase the case management capacity for COVID-19, identification of additional human resources as well as the current challenge facing the COVID-19 response and the importance of ensuring the provision of harmonized and contextualized health service delivery for the people of South Sudan.

The Honorable Minster assured her commitment to address the current challenges facing the health sector.  
On behalf of the Director-General and the Regional Director for Africa, Dr Olu thanked the Honorable Minister for the ongoing support and collaboration with WHO.