On Monday 5 December 2011, the Order of Malta and the World Health Organization – Mali office – signed a cooperation and partnership agreement in the WHO meeting room in Bamako.

The agreement, signed by H. E. Guy de Richemont, Ambassador of the Order of Malta, and by Dr. Fatoumata Binta Tidiane Diallo, WHO representative for Mali, specifies that both parties will study, define and implement cooperation projects in the hospitaller and health sector. The objective is to offer the best possible care to needy patients within the framework of the Mali government’s national health policy, following the World Health Organization’s guidelines.

Currently the Sovereign Order of Malta in Mali, through the Ordre de Malte France, operates in two main sectors:
– Providing support to the various health facilities in Mali under the national health service’s projects
– Instructing paramedics and first-aid practitioners in the Bamako school.

These initiatives will be included in the health and welfare programme, in line with WHO’s five-year plan, through activities involving the correct use of ambulances, training doctors and paramedics and research on the great pandemics and hitherto neglected tropical diseases.