Harare, 11 September 2017 - Zimbabwe played host to the 67th Regional Committee Meeting (RC67) of the WHO African Region from 25th Aug.—1st September. The meeting, which was held at Elephant Hills Hotel in the resort town of Victoria Falls, was de-scribed by many participants as “one of the best RCs,” and “highly successful.” Victoria Falls town is home to the “Victoria Falls” also known as "Mosi oa-Tunya" ("the smoke that thunders") which is positioned almost exactly half way along the mighty Zambezi River's 2700 km journey from it's source to the sea. Here the river plunges headlong into a 100m vertical chasm spanning the full one-and-a-half kilometre width of the river creating the biggest curtain of falling water in the world and also one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Par-ticipants to the meeting enjoyed visits to the falls and the rainforest.

The Zimbabwe country office (WCO) played a pivotal role in the success of the meting. A powerful WCO team led by WR, Dr Okello and OO, Mr Albert Minyangadou worked with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to put the lo-gistics of the meeting in place. A lot of meetings were held, a lot of midnight oil was burnt, and tempers were stretched to the limit but the successful RC meeting was well worth it.

Teams from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, WCO, suppliers and other supporting Ministries formed sub-committees that worked in different areas to make the meeting successful. There were subcommittees for logistics, travel, conferencing, media and communication, protocol, IT, accommodation, security, medical, among others. These subcommittees met and put things in place and reported to the main committee headed by the Director Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Health and Child Care. Regular teleconferences were also held with GMC/AFRO to update on progress and get guidance on problem areas.

An advance WCO team was in Victoria Falls before the meeting started to make sure all the logistics were in place before the meeting. Meetings were held with local journalists to share information about the RC and to discuss how they would work; arrangements were made with the Airport to facilitate smooth entrance of delegates, protocol and accreditation teams were in place, and accommodation was sought and secured for all delegates. When the delegates started arriving they were met at the airport with the travel team, and were transported by the WCO drivers and taken to their hotels. The WCO drivers also operated a shuttle service where delegates were picked up from their hotels to the venue and back on time. The meeting was held in a beautiful world class big tent which was a new experience for most delegates who were used to meetings being held in conference rooms of hotels. Logistically the meeting was successful thanks to the WCO team who worked hard to provide a meeting experience par excellence.

The highly successful RC67 meeting saw the adoption of six frameworks aimed at addressing major health challenges affecting the African continent's health sec-tor, amidst calls to increase and mobilize funding to operationalize them. The frameworks which were adopted during the five days meeting touched on sexually transmitted infections, non-communicable diseases, yellow fever, universal health coverage, human resources for health and management of environmental determinants of health. There was a high level of analysis, and indeed awareness of critical challenges facing the continent during the week-long meeting; and also a clear determination to find home grown solutions.