The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it plans to transform the future of public health by targeting three billion people by 2023.

Mie Okamura of the Emergency Preparedness and Response, WHO, said this in Abuja on Saturday during the “Walk The Talk” peace awareness exercise.

The Walk The Talk was also part of an awareness creation on Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs), which include heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.

“This is what we call walk the talk, which is being done every week to sensitise the population and communities to have a healthier life.

“This is a way to show people that we need to exercise and to be active, which is very important and necessary to achieve good healthy living.

“WHO has three targets which are Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We want one billion people to have access to universal health coverage without having financial hardship.

“The second target is health emergencies protection, which means one billion more people will have better protection from health emergencies.

“The third is healthier populations, which means that one billion more people will enjoy better health and well-being.”

Ms Okamura advised that people should exercise regularly and called on Nigerians to exercise and eat healthy foods as the festive season approaches.

Mary Stephen, the WHO Regional Officer for Africa, said the organisation had trained its staff to respond to health emergencies.

She said Nigeria is prone to many emergencies and so to address such the organisation built its staff capacity and readiness to address any emergency.

According to her, some experts are drawn from ministries and agencies to be trained to handle cases of health emergencies.

(NAN)