Dakar, October 31, 2024 - As part of renewed engagements towards strengthening strategic inter-agency partnerships with sister organizations, UNFPA Regional Director Dr. Sennen Hounton paid a visit to the WHO Regional Emergency Hub in Dakar, accompanied by UNFPA Deputy Director Ms. Fabrizia Falcione, and technical experts from the UNFPA WCA Regional Office in Dakar. The UNFPA team was welcomed on arrival by Dr.
Thierno Baldé, Coordinator of the WHO Emergency Hub in Dakar, and members of his Technical Management team who expressed deep appreciation for the visit. Both teams then toured the WHO storage facility, providing Dr. Hounton and the UNFPA colleagues with an opportunity to appreciate WHO’s extended public health emergency management capacities including the center of excellency on data and innovations, logistical capacity, spacious cold rooms, and large state-of-the-art storage facilities equipped with temperature control capabilities demonstrating preparedness for efficient and rapid response to health emergencies in the region, given the strategic location of the facilities. 
The visit also provided an opportunity for the two organizations to reaffirm the strength of their commitment to reinforce strategic partnerships with the aim of enhancing efficiency in humanitarian interventions to alleviate the pressing needs of most vulnerable populations especially women and girls who often bear the brunt of humanitarian crises.
Discussions between the two delegations led to the identification of several areas of collaboration and partnerships within the aegis of their broader inter-agency framework, especially with respect to the reinforcement of crisis preparedness and response coordination, and the strengthening of health systems. Among these areas, initiatives were proposed to ensure equitable access to health services, the promotion of community resilience, and the protection of the rights of women and girls in emergency situations.
More specifically, Drs Hounton and Baldé agreed on the necessity to:
- Collaborate in training of Surge teams, leveraging facilitators, facilities and logistics of both organizations
- Pre-position life-saving health supplies - leveraging WHO Emergency Hub State-of-the-Art Warehouse to improve agility and adaptability in UNFPA preparedness and response to crises;
- Leverage the UNFPA Regional Initiative on the centrality of the population (RICoP) and the WHO Center of Excellence on Data, Innovation of Public Health Emergencies to generate trends and patterns on maternal mortality in West and Central Africa using Maternal Death Surveillance and Response data, strategic foresight and modeling of public health emergencies; demographic data, for effectiveness in emergency responses; and small areas estimations and other methodologies, and economics of emergencies (costing, cost of inaction, opportunity costs, etc);
- Safeguard gender-transformative approaches: Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies ;
- Ensure inter-agency coordination;
- Strengthen collaboration on research and knowledge management.
At the end of the visit, Dr Sennen Hounton expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome and the quality of the discussions that had ensued.: "I am pleased with the discussions we had with the team at the WHO Regional Emergency Hub in Dakar. Together, we outlined numerous points of collaboration and ways to leverage our assets, experiences and expertises to better serve the populations of the region,", he said.
Dr. Thierno Baldé on his part,“thanked UNFPA for visiting WHO’s Regional Emergency Hub and for the highly fruitful discussions which will enable our two agencies to strengthen our partnership on emergencies that are becoming increasingly frequent. "
UNFPA-WHO inter-agency partnerships reflect a deeply embedded strategic commitment by both UN organizations to building a future where everyone can benefit from quality health care in a safe and equitable environment. Through a coordinated and collaborative approach, the partnership aims to effectively address the needs of populations in the region, especially those of women and girls increasingly exposed to multidimensional emergencies.
