High-level panel discussion on health in Eastern Mediterranean Region explores ways to move …
28 May 2024, Geneva, Switzerland – A partnership event to highlight health challenges and opportunities and the WHO journey in the Eastern Mediterranean Region was held in Geneva on 25 May, ahead of the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly. Hosted by the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy and fellow senior officials, the event included a high-level panel discussion to look ahead to the next 5 years.
Titled “From Crisis to Opportunity: Health in the Eastern Mediterranean”, the event was opened by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the WHO Regional Director. It served as a forum to exchange views on how to enhance collective efforts to remove barriers to health, access and equity in the Region. High-level attendees of the event included several ministers of health from the Region, public health leaders, senior representatives of United Nations agencies and development partners, and diplomatic officials of permanent missions in Geneva.
As well as review critical health challenges the Region has experienced over recent decades, the panel discussion highlighted opportunities and the concrete strategies that aim to help accelerate tangible progress in the Region. The focus was the WHO vision and proposed regional flagship initiatives.
The panel discussion also addressed factors that fall beyond the scope of the health sector and yet have
