Dear Marijan,

Hope you are doing well.

Sorry for late answer, I can suggest following dates and time for the meeting with Dr Nedret Emiroglu:

26th of July – 13:00 or 14:00

For  27th of July its very complicated to say exact time because every week in Thursday there is Governmental Board Meeting in the morning, but for this week I don’t know the time of the meeting. In some cases even the day and the time is changing.  But for now I can suggest 15:00 for 27^th of July, but it can be changed if the time of the Governmental Board Meeting will change.

Looking forward for your confirmation.

Best regards,

Dear Sopo,

As indicated in the email below, we kindly ask you to assist us in getting appointment with the Minister.

Dr Nedret Emiroglu, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Director of the Division on Communicable Diseases and Health Security, would like to meet the minister while she is on the mission to Georgia. She will contribute at the event marking the World Hepatitis Day and will consequently be in Tbilisi 26-29 July 2017. Preferably she would like to meet you on Thursday, 27 July, afternoon.

In case minister is not available on Thursday afternoon, in principle she could also be available on Wednesday afternoon.

We kindly ask for a confirmation, so we can arrange other planned meetings according to the availability of the minister.

Thank you and best regards,

Dear Dr David Sergeenko, minister,

Please, find below short summary of the discussions we have had on Friday, 7 July 2017, 17.00-17.45.

At the meeting WHO was represented by Dr Rusudan Klimiashvili and by me.

The main topic of the meeting was supposedly the UN Round Table on Health provisionally scheduled for 24 July 2017.

In the meantime the Thematic Coordination Group Meeting; Social Welfare (organized by the Donor Coordination Unit of the Government) has been postponed to 24 July 2017 after it was initially planned for early July. The date coincides with the planned UN round table on health. Because several experts/representatives were expected to attend both of the events, we agreed to postpone the UN Round Table on Health. At the moment mid-December 2017 seems to be optimal time for organizing the round table, having in mind summer time and busy autumn months. December seems reasonable also as it coincides well with the start of the new biennium 2018-2019.

We also used the opportunity to discuss priorities for collaboration in 2018-2019. Priorities have been preliminary agreed in spring 2016 (with Dr Rusudan Klimiashvili, who used to be Head of WHO CO Georgia at that time).

The priorities need to be reconfirmed before we continue with finalization of the Biannual Collaborative Agreement 2018-2019.

They are summarized in the attached table. The complete WHO list of Priorities/Programme areas was attached to the letter sent by Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director, on 21 June 2017.

The overall recommendation is that the total number of programme areas in particular member state shall remain under 10, while on the Georgian list there are currently 15 programme areas.

The attached table has been slightly amended after our meeting. Selected priorities are marked with the question marks.

During the meeting you indicated that you will consult your team regarding the priorities.

This email is copied also to Dr Nino Berdzuli, National Counterpart for Strategic Collaboration with WHO. I suggest I closely liaise with her regarding the priorities and continue operational discussions; in any case we shall keep you informed about the progress.

The Biannual Collaborative Agreement 2018-2019 could be signed during the Regional Committee for Europe in Budapest, September 2017, or during the meeting of the Standing Committee to the Regional Committee, Tbilisi, end of November 2017.

As part of the discussion on further collaboration it was pointed out that WHO sees as the key areas for collaboration:

-          Universal health coverage / health system financing / primary health care

-          Non-communicable diseases / tobacco control

-          Vaccine-preventable infections (technical assistance of WHO predominantly financially supported by Gavi)

-          Emergency preparedness

The work in the area of UHC will be financially supported by EU-LUX-WHO Partnership. The action plan for 2017 has been drafted and includes 5 core activities as follows:

-          Establish a National Working Group to prepare an action plan for strategic purchasing and steer its implementation

-          Technical assistance (TA) to explore ways of using SSA invoicing data to support strategic purchasing

-          TA to assess the SSA’s administrative capacity and capacity-building needs

-          TA to develop best practice patient pathways for priority health outcomes and develop tools to support their implementation

-          TA to review and operationalize the primary care strategy 2016-2023, with a focus on strengthening quality improvement mechanisms and the overall governance of primary care

The next mission on UHC is planned for August 2017. Intensive support will continue in 2018-2019.

WHO is aware of many challenges in implementing the tobacco-control legislation; at the same time WHO is fully committed to provide support to the national authorities in close collaboration with the FCTC Secretariat and other UN agencies.

In the area of emergency preparedness WHO intends to engage additional staff that will be located either within the WHO Country Office Georgia or in one of the neighboring countries and thus form a “subregional hub” for South Caucasus. Such development is also envisaged for Central Asia and South Eastern Europe. This also explain the ranking of countries presented in the annex of the letter sent by Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director, on 21 June 2017 (WHO Emergency country model).

Further on I have informed you that the WHO Country Office in Georgia does not have legal status and that we will contact the Protocol Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain the legal status. Legal status would make certain activities easier, as for example at the moment we can only book hotel for incoming missions with the assistance of the UNDP.

Finally I have informed you about the selected planned high level missions and meetings in Georgia.

-          Primary Health Care and non-communicable diseases (nutrition): 24-28 Jul 2017; Juan Tello, WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Joao Breda, WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, Moscow, Russian Federation

-          World Hepatitis Day: 27-28 Jul 2017; Dr Nedret Emiroglu

-          Autumn School of Health Information, 23-27 October 2017; Dr Claudia Stein

-          Tuberculosis, 18-19 Sep 2017, Dr Masoud Dara

-          SCRC, 28-29 Nov 2017; Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, all divisional directors, members of the SCRC

-          Hepatitis Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting, 30 Nov 2017; Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab

Dr Nedret Emiroglu, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Director of the Division on Communicable Diseases and Health Security, is kindly requesting a meeting with you during her mission to Georgia. She will contribute at the event marking the World Hepatitis Day and will consequently be in Tbilisi 26-29 July 2017. Preferably she would like to meet you on Thursday, 27 July, afternoon. We cordially hope that you will be available for a short meeting and kindly ask for confirmation.

Let me use this opportunity and thank you once again for meeting us on Friday, 7 July 2017, and for overall excellent collaboration.

Sincerely yours,

Marijan Ivanusa

WHO Representative

Head of WHO Country Office Georgia

Office location: 81 Vasil Barnov Street, 0179 Tbilisi, Georgia

Mailing address: UN House, 9 Rapiel Eristavi Street, 0179 Tbilisi, Georgia

Mobile 1: +995 599 305 207

Mobile 2: +386 40 528 639

Email: ivanusam@who.int

Skype: who-ivanusam

GPN: 74211