Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa left the country today to lead Sri Lanka’s delegation to the 79th session of the World Health Organization’s Regional Committee for South-East Asia, which opens in Dili, Timor-Leste tomorrow, Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror both reported, citing the Health Ministry.
The four-day session runs from September 7 to 10, with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending alongside health ministers and senior officials from the region’s ten member states.
Sri Lanka chairs the session
Jayatissa was elected Chairperson of the Regional Committee at its 78th session, held in Colombo in 2025, and continues in the role until a successor is elected. The committee will choose new office-bearers when the session opens.
That gives Sri Lanka the chair for the opening of a session at which it is also presenting its own case. The delegation will set out the country’s experience with its free healthcare service and its proposals for regional health cooperation, the ministry said.
Who is going
The delegation comprises:
- Dr. Anil Jasinghe — Health and Mass Media Ministry Secretary and consultant physician
- Dr. S. Sridharan — Deputy Director-General of Health Services (Planning)
- Dr. S. M. Arnold — Deputy Director-General of Health Services (Public Health Services)
- Vajira H. W. Dissanayake — Senior Professor of Genetics and Biomedical Informatics
- Dr. Janaki Vidanapathirana — Director (Planning), Health Ministry
What is on the agenda
The session’s theme is strengthening the health workforce to ensure equitable access to specialised care. Delegates are to discuss workforce development, universal health coverage, digital health and the use of artificial intelligence in health systems.
They will also take up the resilience of health facilities, the elimination of multiple diseases, and accelerating efforts to end tuberculosis.
Member states are expected to consider adopting a Dili Declaration on equitable access to specialised care — the session’s principal deliverable.
A crowded schedule of bilaterals
Jayatissa is to hold a series of meetings on the sidelines, according to the ministry:
- September 7 — Maldivian Health, Family and Welfare Minister Geela Ali; Indian Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda; Bangladeshi Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar M. Sakhawat Hossain
- September 8 — Bhutanese Health Minister Lyonpo Tandin Wangchuk, and a delegation including Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Qatar for State Affairs
Further meetings are planned with Indonesian Health Minister Budi G. Sadikin and David Jordens, Belgium’s Ambassador to Timor-Leste. Jayatissa will also meet Tedros separately during the session.
The timing
The minister leaves on the day the government he serves in opened its two-year anniversary rally series in the Kalutara District — a campaign whose case Jayatissa himself set out to reporters, and which runs through September in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Matara and Gampaha.
He travels with the domestic health picture mixed. The dengue death toll reached 73 today with case numbers falling but the control unit warning the risk has not passed, and the country continues to work with the WHO on vector-borne disease through the collaborating centre at Angoda.
Not reported
Neither outlet said how long the delegation will be away, what the trip costs, or whether Sri Lanka is seeking any specific commitment at the session. Neither gave the text or scope of the Dili Declaration beyond its title, said whether Sri Lanka is standing for any office at the election of new bearers, or reported who will cover the Health Ministry in the minister’s absence.
