‘WHO House’ Commissioned in Ouagadougou

Sitting on 5,590 square metres of land and built at the cost of CFA 1.2 billion (about US$ 2, 400, 000), the four-winged complex boasts 75 offices and three standard conference rooms, among several other modern facilities.

The premises will serve as the offices of the WHO Representative in Burkina Faso, Dr Djamila Cabral, and staff of WHO's West Africa Inter-Country Support Team (IST), supervised by Dr Bokar Toure.

The keys to the complex were handed over by Burkina Faso's Prime Minister, Mr. Tertius Zongo, to the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Zongo described WHO as "the global organization with not only the most capacity to elaborate health policies and strategies, but also to provide support for implementing them."

He added: "It is therefore only normal that Burkina Faso put in place the conditions necessary for this development partner of choice and reference (i.e. WHO) to enable it deepen its cooperation with our country."

In his remarks, Dr Sambo explained the rationale for establishing the three sub regional ISTs in the WHO African Region: to decentralize WHO operations in order to bring support closer to countries as outlined in Strategic Orientations for WHO Action in the African Region, a major policy and strategy document which he unveiled on assuming office as Regional Director four years ago.

The Ouagadougou IST serves 17 countries: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Sierra Leone.

The other two ISTs are located in Libreville, Gabon, and Harare, Zimbabwe.
IST-Libreville serves *11 central African countries while IST-Harare serves **18 eastern and southern African countries.

The Regional Director expressed gratitude to the Government and people of Burkina Faso for being good hosts of WHO, and enjoined United Nations staff working in the country to redouble their efforts to help Burkina Faso achieve the improvements sent out in the Millennium Development Goals.

The commissioning of the WHO House in Ouagadougou turned out to be a double celebration, as the Regional Director used the occasion to deliver his 2009 World Health Day Message to people in the WHO African Region.

The theme of this year's World Health commemoration is "Save lives; Make Hospitals Safe in Emergencies."

*Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe.
---
** Botswana, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania/Zanzibar, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

For more information, please contact:

Rodrigue Barry, Media and Advocacy Officer, IST Ouagadougou;
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr. Sosthène Zombré (MAL)
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tél. (226) 50306509 ou 70214312 //
Fax. (226) 50332541

Samuel Ajibola, WHO/AFRO, Brazzaville
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ;
Tel. +47241 39378