(KAMPALA, Uganda):  A High–level Emergency Ministerial meeting held on Cross-border Collaboration for Preparedness and Response to Ebola Virus Disease today opened in Kampala.

The Government of Uganda, with the support of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation funded and hosted a High-level Emergency Ministerial meeting for all neighbouring countries, relevant regional economic communities and partners.

The meeting brought together high-level Ministers from the Government of Uganda; Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, including, delegates from The Office of the Executive Secretary of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Regional Economic Communities, African Union, World Health Organisation and Partners working in the health security area.

The main objective of the one-day High–level Emergency Ministerial meeting is to strengthen and enhance collaboration and coordination for cross-border preparedness and response to the on-going Ebola Virus disease outbreak and other health emergencies.

Speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of IGAD, the IGAD Head of Mission to Uganda,  Lucy Daxbacher, disclosed that as a Regional Economic Community IGAD Secretariat will continue to play its critical role of strengthening coordination of responses through regional and continental collaboration.

‘We would like to encourage all of us to collaborate using a regional and continental approach to help build a resilient health system that leverages on the strengths of one another”, she stressed.

Furthermore, the Head of Mission recalled that IGAD has implemented successful cross-border initiatives in TB/HIV (IRRAP) and Malaria, Polio eradication, drug regulation, reproductive, maternal, new born, child, and adolescent health programs, and COVID-19 response among other initiatives in the social pillar.

She also vowed that the IGAD secretariat will continue to engage the development partners and other stakeholders to support the regional efforts in combating the ongoing Ebola outbreak and mitigate its social economic impact on the people.

The high-level Ministerial meeting builds on the existing experiences and previous collaborations within the region and beyond, including the collaborative framework to coordinate Ebola Virus Disease and other public health preparedness and response in at risk member states of 2019.

Source: Inter Governmental Authority on Development