Juba, 16 March 2016: WHO South Sudan Country Office held a two-day annual retreat from 15 to 16 March 2016 at Juba Regency Hotel.

The objective of the two-day retreat was to foster a strong team spirit among staff and challenge them to contribute to creating a highly successful WHO country office through innovation and hard work.

The theme was arrived at after office-wide consultations in which staff expressed the need to improve their teamwork and reflect on repositioning WHO’s work in the changing context of the global and regional health priorities and their implications for South Sudan.

In his welcoming remarks, the South Sudan WHO Staff Association president Dr Richard Rehan, whose association worked with management to organize the retreat, applauded staff for attending the event.

While opening the retreat, the WHO Country Representative, Dr Abdulmumini Usman, encouraged staff to work hard to achieve the South Sudan Country Office targets.

Among other things, the retreat provided a platform for the WHO Representative, to share his vision in line with the AFRO Transformation Agenda and the Boma Health Initiative. He therefore made a presentation that covered pertinent issues of the Global Health Agenda, Sustainable Development Goal, Universal Health Coverage, dimensions of the AFRO Transformation Agenda and emphasized on aligning the country office’s programme to the AFRO Transformation Agenda and the Boma Health Initiative.

The retreat, included discussions on the Boma Health Initiative, Strengthening the operational support of the WCO and communicating the work of WHO to demonstrate the top priority activities that would lead to attaining the goals of ensuring healthy South Sudan, while ensuring equity and prioritizing  the under privileged.

In his moving remarks, Dr Abdulmumini encouraged everyone to part of the change that the WHO country office in South Sudan has embarked on and welcomed everyone to jump in to the train of change to achieve the change together.

The retreat offered an invaluable opportunity for the whole team to look back at where we are coming from, and project that into a shared future, which is result oriented with focus on impact that will improve the health outcomes of the people.

The retreat was a great success, it didn't only sharpen the organization’s focus but also it has clarified WHO South Sudan’s priorities and boosted team building among staff.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical Contacts: Technical Contacts: Dr Moses Ongom- +211-956283515; ongomm [at] who.int (ongomm[at]who[dot]int) 

Communication Contact: Ms Jemila M. Ebrahim- +211-950450007; ebrahimj [at] who.int (ebrahimj[at]who[dot]int)
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Below:

01. Some of the staff members introduces his or her partner to the group

02. Some of the staff members introduces his or her partner to the group

03. Some of the staff members in a group discussion

04. Some of the staff members in a group discussion

05. Staff presents the findings of the current practices in relation to the dimensions of the Transformation Agenda

06. Staff presents the findings of the current practices in relation to the dimensions of the Transformation Agenda