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Monday, March 30, 2015

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to intensify collaboration on sustainable management of health programs and projects in Africa.

The agreement between the two institutions came on the sideline of the annual Conference of African Ministers of Planning, Economy and Finance jointly organized by the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The conference is being hosted on 25-31 March here in Ethiopia’ s capital Addis Ababa.

The agreement is the first of its kind between WHO and UNOPS in the African region, according to the joint statement of the institutions.

The MOU commits the two institutions to share information, collaborate and foster synergies to strengthen regional capacities in the areas of sustainable health infrastructure, procurement, with a special focus on medical equipment, management of health programs and projects.

“The formalization of our collaboration with UNOPS is timely and welcomed by WHO as it will improve the efficiency of our operations at country level,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “This agreement is part of WHO’s regional transformation agenda in Africa for responsive strategic operations.”