Heads of Pacific Health weave the health mat with threads of action

Apia, SAMOA – 16 April 2024 – The 15th Pacific Heads of Health Meeting (PHoH) is now in progress in Apia, Samoa after it was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Samoa, Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for the Western Pacific Region.

Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa noted that this is the first-ever health regional meeting to be held in Samoa.

“You are the health leaders behind the leaders of our governments for making sound decisions that contribute to promoting the health and well-being of our people. Your thoughts and deliberations in these three days will further strengthen our health systems and shape up Pacific healthy nations in the future,” said the Prime Minister.

In his opening remarks, Dr Saia gave the example of how, during the weaving of a mat, people come together, bringing their contributions, and collectively, the different strands, regardless of their imperfections, to make a mat that is useful, strong and a source of pride.

“Health issues are not easily addressed, except through our ‘collective weaving of the ‘health mat’ with threads of action on health systems strengthening, climate change, and pandemic preparedness and many more priority areas,” he said.

The three – day meeting will discuss key health areas such as health information and digital health, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), human resources in health, climate change and health, universal health coverage and primary health care, maternal and reproductive health, biomedical engineering, international health regulations (IHR) and pandemic preparedness, health care financing, HIV in the Pacific, waste management in the Pacific and One Health.

Some of the recommendations from the 15th Pacific Heads of Health meeting may be progressed to the Pacific Health Ministers Meeting (PHMM) that will be hosted by Samoa in 2025.

13 Pacific Heads of Health from American Samoa, Cook Islands, CMNI, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna are attending the PHoH.

The Samoa Ministry of Health is hosting this meeting with support from the Pacific Community (SPC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) with funding support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).