The fourth meeting of WHO collaborating centres (WHO-CCs) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region was held during January 2019, in Muscat, Oman.

The objectives of the meeting were to: review the updated rules and policies regulating designation of a WHO-CC and streamlining their collaboration with WHO’s programme of work; discuss the challenges faced by WHO-CCs in implementation of planned activities; and orient the WHO-CCs to the regional Vision 2023.

The participants included directors of WHO-CCs from different Member States in the Region, including Bahrain, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates. The meeting was also attended by WHO officers from different technical units of the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Many topics were covered during the meeting, including a situation analysis of WHO-CCs in the Region, updates on WHO-CC policies and procedures, examples of good practices and challenges, aligning the work of WHO-CCs with WHO’s thirteenth general programme of work, the Sustainable Development Goals and WHO’s regional Vision 2023, networking among WHO CCs, and national experience from Islamic Republic of Iran.

The meeting also included discussions and group work on how WHO-CCs can further support WHO’s agenda and developing a future agenda for WHO-CCs with proposed actions to support WHO’s programme of work and new areas for collaboration.

By the end of the meeting, the participants had better understanding of roles and responsibilities of the centres, the potential for collaboration among WHO-CCs with common areas of work, identified gaps according to the findings of the WHO-CC survey, and suggested areas of work in need of the establishment of new WHO-CCs.

Related report

Summary report on the Fourth meeting of the WHO collaborating centres in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Muscat, Oman
9–10 January 2019