President Jakaya Kikwete
President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday started to chair the High-Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises held at the North Lawn Building at the UN headquarters in New York.
The panel, which was appointed by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, was tasked to find ways of responding to various health pandemics. It will make recommendations on strengthening national and international systems to prevent and manage future health crises.
A statement availed to The Guardian yesterday said President Kikwete, who arrived in New York yesterday, will chair the high- level panel for four days.
Other panel members include Celso Luiz Nunes Amorimo, former Minister of Foreign Relations (1993-1994 and 2003-2010) and Minister of Defense of Brazil, Micheline Calmy-Rey, former President of the Swiss Confederation Marty Natalegawa, former Foreign minister and Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the UN in New York.
Others are Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, Rajiv Shah and Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
They were tasked to find out how to respond to various health pandemics and make recommendations to strengthen national and international systems to prevent and manage future health crises, especially from lessons learned during the Ebola outbreak.
Ban Ki-Moon appointed the High Level Panel following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa which has been the world’s deadliest.
Its spread in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has called for the necessity to strengthen the management of various health pandemics in future.
Before the meeting the panel will hold talks with the SG who had already requested them to give regular reports on the task and submit the final report in December this year.
Ban Ki-Moon will submit the report to the UN Council at the end of next December and a decision will be made basing on the recommendations.
At its first meeting the panel will set out strategies on how to work on the matter and its business plan by consulting the SG. It will be meeting in every six weeks.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
