10 August 2012,  Brazzaville - The Executive Director of Roll Back Malaria (RBM), Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, ended a two-day official visit to the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo yesterday.
 
The aim of the visit was to reinforce collaboration between WHO and RBM to support countries in the African Region; and strengthen collaboration between WHO and ALMA (African Leaders Malaria Alliance).
 
In his remarks, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, congratulated the Executive Director on her new appointment and wished her well during her term of office. He placed emphasis on the importance of both parties working together to address the malaria disease burden in the African countries as well as supporting the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) in its advocacy efforts. He said strengthening of national malaria programmes and ensuring country ownership should be the primary focus of RBM and WHO support to countries. 

The Regional Director welcomed Dr Robert Newman, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme and commended the work of malaria partners that has resulted in progress in the African Region leading to a few countries opting for an elimination strategy. He however expressed concern about the decreased funding for malaria in the African Region and in particular to the World Health Organization which has resulted in reduced capacity of the Regional Office for Africa to respond to the needs and requests from countries. 
In her remarks, Dr Nafo-Traore thanked the Regional Director for having agreed to receive her at the Regional Office during the early days of her term of office and expressed her wish that the collaboration between RBM and WHO would be further strengthened. She agreed with the Regional Director on the need to work closely at the global, regional and country levels to ensure the success of malaria control in the Region. 

The RBM Executive Director proceeded to hold a series of in-depth discussions with the technical clusters at the WHO Regional Office for Africa and agreed on concrete actions that will strengthen RBM and WHO collaboration to support countries.

Dr Nafo-Traore was accompanied by Dr Robert Newman, Director of the Global Malaria Programme at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and Dr Jose Nkuni, RBM Sub Regional Network Coordinator for Central Africa
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For more information, please contact:

Collins Boakye-Agyemang + 472413 9420 E-mail: Boakyec [at] afro.who.int