The Second lady of the Republic of Ghana,Hajia Mrs Samira Bawumia, will address the High-level panel of the 72nd Session of the world heath Assembly (WHA)in Geneva,Switzerland.
WHA is the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation.
Mrs. Bawumia,who is an ambassador for the UN Foundation’s clean cooking Alliance, will be speaking at the High-level side Event to launch the Global Health and Energy platform of the Action on Tuesday, May 21,2019.
The World Health Organisation adopted the idea to establish a new multi-stakeholder Global Energy-Health platform of Action in 2018 to achieve Sustainable Development Goal(SDG)3 on health and SDG 7 on energy,starting with a focus on clean cooking.
The aim of the platform is to pilot closely linked sustainable energy and health solutions at country-level to create strong multiplier effect to meet the sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate Change.
WHO believes the interlinkages between energy and health are numerous. Clean household energy improves the health and well-being of all, particularly women and children who often bear the greatest health risk from the household air pollution. Improvements in energy efficiency and with an increased reliance on renewable energy is critical for ensuring the delivery of heath care services, particularly in remote settings,while at the same time minimizing the climate footprint of the health sector.
Other Speakers include Dr. Zulema Tomas,Peru’s Minister for Health; Ms. Dymphna van der lans, CEO,clean cooking Alliance;Mr.Salvatore Vinci,Deputy Director,country Support and partnerships Division, international Renewable Energy Agency(IRENA);Ms. Isabel Raya, Energy Policy and Partnerships Consultant, Division for sustainable Development Goals,UN-DESA;Ms. Sheila Oparaoch,international coordinator and program manager,ENERGIA & Co-facilitator of the SDG 7 Technical Advisory Groups.
The rest are Mr. Luc Severi, manager, Energy Access, United Nations Foundation;Dr. Poonan Singh, WHO Regional Director SEARO;Dr. Matshidiso Moeti,WHO regional Director AFRO(TBC);and Ms .Nethalie Olijslager jaarsma, DPR/Ambassador,permanent mission kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations and other international organizations at Geneva