The Foundation's Executive Officer is leading a new WHO working group
Thierry Vandevelde, Executive Officer of the Foundation, has become coordinator of a working group on the environmental aspects of the combat against cholera within the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) set up by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a United Nations agency specializing in global public health issues.
In 1992, it set up the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) aimed at reducing mortality and morbidity associated with cholera across the world.
As part of the revitalization of the GTFCC initiated in 2014, five themed working groups have been appointed, including one dedicated specifically to the environmental aspects of cholera prevention and control. This group will bring together an international panel of experts from various institutions (UN, NGOs, universities, the private sector, etc.) which will focus more particularly on the link between cholera and access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - WASH).
One of its main objectives will be to establish long-term strategies for sustainable action against the disease by setting up structural actions based on the WASH parameters.
This group will be coordinated by Thierry Vandevelde, the Veolia Foundation's Executive Officer.
Facts
- Cholera is a particularly virulent disease, with 100,000 to 120,000 deaths recorded every year worldwide.
- The Foundation has been engaged since 2007 in thecombat against cholera in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country hardest hit by the disease. It supports the Health Ministry with formulation and implementation of its PMSEC (multi-sector plan to eradicate cholera), which promotes an integrated approach based on epidemiological research and deployment of structural actions using the WASH approach.
- In 2010, the Foundation also initiated the Global Alliance Against Cholera (GAAC), which enables a raft of public and private players to pool their skills around this issue.
The Foundation's expertise and the relevance of its approach in the Democratic Republic of Congo and through the GAAC have been recognized with the appointment of Dr. Thierry Vandevelde to lead this WHO working group.
WHO
PROJECT SUPPORTED
Humanitarian and Development | Congo, The Democratic Republic of the | 2010/03/15
Battling cholera epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo
GAAC
- The GAAC website
- Download the leaflet of the presentation of the GAAC