70th World Health Assembly, which is the top decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the assembly where the highest managers, international organizations and non-governmental organizations come together and discuss the health problems the world faces, was held at the UN Headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland between the dates of May 22-31, 2017.
A delegation in the presidency of Prof. Dr. Recep Akdağ, Minister of Health of Turkish Republic, attended the Assembly themed "Building Better Systems for Health in the age of Sustainable Development".
Prof. Dr. Recep Akdağ delivered a speech addressing all the member states at the plenary session of the Assembly and had various bilateral meetings at ministerial level to move the relations in the field of health forward.
Ethiopian candidate Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected as the new General Director at the third tour of elections instead of Dr. Margaret Chan whose term of office ended at this year's Assembly.
After the final results of the elections, Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Recep Akdağ delivered a congratulatory speech on behalf of WHO European Region.
At the Assembly, many important topics were discussed varying from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases, from global intervention for health emergency cases to healthy life styles.
At the second and third days of the Assembly, Minister of Health had bilateral meetings with ministers and delegations of the states with which we have good relations and improve the cooperation opportunities. The potential projects in the future were evaluated and new decisions were taken with Pakistan Health Minister Saire Afzal Tarar, Uzbekistan Health Minister Alisher Shadmanov, Iran Health Minister Hassan Hashemi, Sudan Health Minister Idris Abu Garda, Moldovo Health Minister Ruxanda Glavan and Kazakhstan Health Minister Elzhan Birtanov. Also, meetings with the ministers of friendly and brother states during the Assembly.
At the third day of the Assembly, Health Ministerial Working Dinner, which the health ministers and delegations of various countries were invited and health related problems and solution suggestion were discussed, was organized under the auspices of the Health Minister Prof. Dr. Recep Akdağ.
The Assemblies which gathers all the decision-makers in the world provides a platform for events in the field of health. Within this context, at the session themed "Cooperation at Health System Transformation: Value of Experience" hosted by Turkey, Health Minister Prof. Dr. Recep Akdağ shared the experience gained with Health Transformation Program of Turkey with friend and brother countries. Saudi Arabia Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Bahrain Health Minister Faeqa bint Saeed Alsaleh and Ethiopia Health Minister Yifru Berhan Mitke and Dr. Enis Barış, Sector Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population, Europe and Central Asia, attended the event as speakers.
Ministerial Delegation attended many important events and was president or moderator of many other events during the assembly. Turkey had active roles in especially Organization of Islamic Cooperation Coordination Meeting, MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Australia) themed "Stronger Health Systems, "GE Public Private Partnership in the Field of Health Meeting" and special session of United Nations at which health problems in Palestine were discussed.
The Health Minister and Ministerial Delegation of Turkey attended the panels themed "Acceleration of Health Services Development with Financial and Sustainable Cooperation" and "Sustainable Financing at Pandemics".
The Health Minister convened with Turkish citizens in Geneva and Lausanne at Lausanne Unified Turkish Association. At the meeting, the Minister listened the problems of citizens and gave resolution advice. Citizens showed warm interest to the Minister at the meeting.
At the fourth day of the Assembly, Turkey held a side event themed "Cooperation in Health Transformation: Value of Experience" with the participation of Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Bahrain. About 200 participants form WHO and many non-governmental organizations attended the event.
Both at the meetings held at the Plenary Session of the Assembly and at the side events and bilateral meetings, Health Transformation Program was spoken highly of it and cooperation requests of several states for the successful works in universal coverage of health and public-private partnership in the field of health, our services for Syrian guests were appreciated.
