Health ministers from African Sids to meet in Seychelles for second time |25 September 2017

Cabo Verde and Mauritius’ health minister and heads of delegation from Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe will join the Minister for Health of Seychelles in the 6th Meeting of Ministers of Health of small island developing states of Africa from September 26-29.

The regional director of the World Health Organisation for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, and the executive director of UNAids Michel Sidibe will also join them for this biennial meeting which will be held at the Savoy Hotel. The meeting will be officially opened tomorrow at 6pm by President Danny Faure.

It is the second time that such a meeting is held in Seychelles. The first time was in 2006.

Before the meeting proper starts, the delegates will be taken on a bus tour in and around Victoria to give them a taste of the model of people-centred development that has permitted the per capita income of the country to rise, in just 40 years of independence, to the level of some developed countries.

This year, discussions in the meeting will range from the health sector management of the epidemic of addiction to illegal drugs, the management of childhood obesity, health disaster management, diabetes and kidney failure, pooled procurement and many other pertinent topics.

A panel discussion on laws, policies and strategies to try and eliminate the epidemic of HIV/Aids in the small island developing states will take place on Thursday September 28 as from 6pm onwards. The executive director of UNAids, Mr Sidibe is expected to address the delegates prior to the panel discussion.

The meeting is expected to end with a specific, measurable, achievable, realistic plan of action which will be undertaken jointly by the five small island developing states in the next two years.

That plan of action will be revealed in a press conference at the end of the meeting on Friday September 29.