Just under three weeks of having landed in South Africa as the new World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative in South Africa, Dr Akpaka Kalu, has already held a series of introductory meetings with United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator (RC), Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas; South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi; Member of the Executive Committee for Health for the KwaZulu National Provincial Department, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo; KwaZulu Natal Province Head of Health, Dr Musa Gumede; and the University of KwaZulu Natal WHO Collaborating Centre for Educating Nurses and Midwives in Problem-solving. Beyond introducing himself, Dr Kalu also focused on learning about South Africa’s state of health from the key informants and share WHO’s mandate of supporting member states in improving their health outcomes; affirming that WHO would continue to support the national health system in three investment pillars: normative guidance; implementation support; and generation and use of evidence to support implementation and guide policies and strategies.
