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First Inter-ministerial Conference on
Health and Environment in Africa
26–29 August 2008 | Libreville, Gabon
Highlights for Tuesday, 26 August 2008 |
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The first Inter-ministerial Conference on Health and Environment in Africa convened on Tuesday morning, August 26, 2008, at the Cité de la Démocratie in Libreville, Gabon. Opening the two-and-a-half day technical segment which precedes the minister’s conference, Jean-Baptiste Ndong Nguema, Gabon’s Secretary General in the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene in Charge of the Family and Advancement of Women, welcomed the Conference as an opportunity to explore the links between the state of Africa’s environment and human health, and suggested that the conference will contribute to Africa’s sustainable development. Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health and Environment, World Health Organization, in her brief welcoming remarks on behalf of the conference co-organizers, expressed hope of an improvement in the state of the environment and the health of Africans’ as a result of the conference.
The bureau for the technical segment, appointed by acclamation, comprises Chair Lucien Obame of Gabon, Vice-Chair Robinson Roland of Madagascar, 1st Rapporteur Jean de Dieu Nzila of the Republic of Congo, and 2nd Rapporteur Ramsook Loykisoonlal from South Africa. The experts also adopted by acclamation their agenda and timetable of work as presented by Chair Obame.
The substantive session began with two keynote presentations. WHO’s Maria Neira presented on the environmental threats to human health, while Mounkaila Goumandakoye, Director, Regional Office for Africa, UNEP, presented on opportunities for collaboration and highlighted the existing mechanisms to address the health and environmental challenges faced by the continent. In the afternoon, the experts met in parallel working groups to consider: policy actions to address current environmental risks to human health; climate change; new and emerging environmental threats to human health; and tools and approaches for policy making in environmental management and public health.
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