IPNEWS: A five-day conference to review the past year and develop a five-year strategic plan for the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) is ongoing in Monrovia.

The conference, which is being held under the theme, “Strengthening Public Health Interventions Nationwide,” will also review the challenges faced NPHIL and will adopt plans to move ahead for the next five years.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, the Director General of NPHIL, Jane Macaulay, said the institution’s vision of becoming a national and regional center of excellence in science and research could only be realized with the firm partnerships they have established over the past few years.

According to her, NPHIL is cognizant of the need to regularly come around the table to effectively communicate and discuss their strategies and interventions, to ensure that resources of their partnerships are adequately distributed and effectively utilized.

“The participants at the conference will use three days to review the performance and challenges of NPHIL over the years and the next two day will validate the five-year strategic plan of the institution,” she said

Commenting on the five-strategic plan, Madam Macaulay indicated that it is NPHIL’s mandate to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats and events.

“We will continue to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and our esteemed partners, in strengthening public health and the overall health sector in Liberia,” she noted.

According to her, to augment its functions and realize NHPIL’s existence as a scientific institution in Liberia, and a future center of excellence for public health diagnostics and surveillance in the West African Region, NPHIL will begin by crafting this year’s, programs to incorporate a holistic vision to elevate the institution to higher performance standards and qualities.

“We will strategically plan and ensure the objectives of our program are directed to and aligned with meeting the strategic objectives of NAPHS and GHSA.”

On her part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah commended the organizers of the conference for taking the representation of the entire country in deliberation, the reviewing and validating of the five-year plan of NPHIL.

According to her, disease, when coming into the country from animal or human being, does take in to consideration whether it is urban or rural in terms of affecting the populace.

Minister Jallah also thanked the medical practitioners for their roles in combating the outbreak of Coronavirus, the treatment of people effected with the disease and the administering vaccines to the populace.

“We have done well,” she said; adding: “there are lots to be done because we have not done much of genomic sequencing as we need to increase that part of our capability.”

She praised the working relationship between the Ministry of Health and NPHIL because in the past, there were some wars going on in term of differences.

In remarks, the Country Director of the United States Center for Disease Control in Liberia, Dr. Rachel Idowu congratulated NPHIL for maintaining this well-established tradition that bring together senior representatives of the government and the donor partners

NPHIL has a distinguishable role to play in Liberia when it comes to the prevention of outbreak of diseases among the population, the US CDC official said.

Dr. Idowu maintained that the CDC/ USA is proud to be associated with NPHIL in the discharge of its statutory mandate, which is to create a safe environment for the Liberian people and foreign nationals within the country’s border.

Speaking on behalf of the UN agencies, the Country Representative of the World Health Organization, Dr. Peter L. Clement, assured NPHIL said this is a huge opportunity for the NPHIL and Health Ministry to review what went well and what that has not.

He said the review of the health plan of NPHIL fails within the scope of the WHO since the organization is also reviewing its plan in Liberia.

The opening ceremony was graced by the representatives of the World Bank, the German Technical Cooperation, and the European Union, among others.