Sierra Leone Health and Sanitation Minister Haja Zainab Bangura traveled to Cuba last weekend to finalize negotiations to bring much needed health workers to her country.

The verdict: success, in the form of 32 health specialists coming to Sierra Leone.

She is overjoyed. For a country with a dire shortage of health workers, Bangura said the team will have an immediate impact. South Africa is funding the program with a $3 million grant to Sierra Leone.

Delegates from ministries of health in three MLI countries – Sierra Leone, Mali, and Ethiopia—gathered last week for a two-day high-level meeting at the UN Headquarters. The meeting, sponsored by the UNFPA, was held to highlight the importance of reproductive health commodity supply security including contraceptives and medicines for safe maternal health and childbirth.

Sierra Leone, Mali, and Ethiopia are part of the 12 priority countries that are members of the Global Program to Enhance Reproductive Health Commodity Security. The program, started in 2007, has a basis in country ownership as it supports each country’s national efforts to ensure a reliable supply of reproductive health essentials.  Representatives from each country shared their progress and experience in the global program