75th Session of WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region has begun today in Paro, Bhutan.

75th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region, which will be held from 5-9 September 2022, has begun today in Paro, Bhutan. Health Ministers and Senior officials from all 11 Member States of the Region will attend this meeting, and this meeting is the highest policy making governing body meeting of WHO for this region.

A high level delegation from Maldives led by Minister of Health His Excellency Ahmed Naseem, will be attending this year’s meeting. 

The meeting will be attended by the Director General of WHO (name), Regional Director for South-East Asia Region (name) and other high level officials from the WHO Headquarters and the Regional Office. In addtion, officials from partner organizations and Civil Societies will also be attending this meeting.

A Ministerial Roundtable under the topic “Mental Health Care and Services be held on Tuesday, 6th September 2022. The Ministerial roundtable discussions will include approaches for comprehensive care and service delivery for mental health in the region. Following these deliberations, the Health Ministers will adopt “Declaration by the Health Ministers of Member States at the Seventy-fifth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia on universal access to people-centred mental health care and services” to overcome the challenges and to strengthen mental health care and services.

Additionally, topics of regional interest such as Regional Plans on Management of latent TB, Health, Environment and Climate Change, Cervical Cancer and health-related SDGs will also be discussed at the meeting.

Furthermore, governance matters related to progress of work of the South-East Asia Regional Office new building, management performance and transformation in the South-East Asia Region, WHO budget reports and implementation progress of work plans will also be discussed during the session

At the sidelines of the Regional Committee Meeting, Minister Naseem will be meeting with Regional Director of SEAR, Ministers of Health and other high level officials from the region to discuss bilateral collaborations on strengthening the health workforce and other areas to strengthen health sector.