South Africa News

Pretoria | 7 June 2026 

On World Food Safety Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), join South Africa and the global community in recognising that safe food is essential for good health, good nutrition, decent livelihoods, fair trade and public trust in the food system. Every meal should nourish people, not put them at risk.

Johannesburg — Mental health experts, policymakers, civil society organizations and partners from more than twenty African countries, meeting for the first-ever mental health intercountry meeting, have called for stronger, coordinated action to close critical gaps in mental health services in the region.

Driven to End Malaria: Now We Can. Now We Must.

25 April 2026, Pretoria | On this World Malaria Day, the World Health Organization in South Africa, joins the Department of Health reaffirming a shared commitment to end malaria as a public health threat.

In the far north-east of South Africa, malaria once returned quietly with every rainy season. Communities in border areas of KwaZulu-Natal, close to Mozambique and Eswatini, faced recurring fever, illness and uncertainty. For frontline health workers, it was often difficult to predict which villages would be affected next.

Today, that picture is changing.

Pretoria, 19 March 2026 — South Africa’s National Department of Health jointly with World Health Organization Country Office in South Africa convened partners to launch the inaugural edition of the Health Financing Progress Matrix (HFPM) report in Pretoria. The event shared the HFPM findings and opened dialogue on practical options to strengthen health financing in support of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), with an emphasis on the use of evidence, focus on equity and sustainable progress, and strengthening planning for UHC.

Pretoria, South Africa — 20 February 2026, The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in South Africa, together with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, convened an expert policy stakeholders’ roundtable, to examine how major global trends are reshaping health systems and what this means for global and South Africa’s future.

Pretoria—World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day provides an important opportunity to reaffirm our collective commitment to ending diseases that continue to affect the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. NTD are preventable, treatable and, in many cases, entirely eliminable. Yet globally they still affect more than one billion people, imposing an unacceptable burden of illness, disability, stigma and lost opportunity.

Johannesburg—Technical experts from 14 African countries, multilateral development banks, development partners, and global health initiatives are convening in Johannesburg for a three-day Regional Technical Meeting on Innovative Financing for Health in Africa, co-organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa and the Global Fund.