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Closing remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean at the High Level Virtual Ministerial Meeting on Accelerating Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Actions in High Burden Countries in the Region
06 October 2025 Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues, and partners, Thank you for dedicating your time and commitment to this important dialogue. Our collective goal is clear: no woman or child should die from preventable causes. The discussions today reaffirmed the urgency of accelerating progress through national action,...
Opening remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean at the High Level Virtual Ministerial Meeting on Accelerating Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Actions in High Burden Countries in the Region
06 October 2025 Your Excellencies, Ministers of Health,Regional Directors of UNICEF and UNFPA, Distinguished guests, colleagues and partners, I ask you to picture the following scene—all too common across our Region. A mother in Mogadishu, heavily pregnant, walks for hours to reach the nearest health facility. When she finally arrives, there is no...
WHO launches regional framework to defeat meningitis by 2030
Cairo, Egypt, 2 October 2025 – The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially launched a regional framework to defeat meningitis by 2030 in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, marking a bold step toward eliminating meningitis epidemics and saving lives across the Region. Launching the draft Framework for implementing the Defeating...
Saudi FDA and OIC organize workshop on strengthening regulatory systems in collaboration with WHO
1 October 2025, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia--The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), through its educational arm, the SFDA Academy, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), organized a virtual workshop in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). The initiative was aligned with the “Riyadh Declaration” issued during the 3rd Meeting...
Turning Resolutions into Results: Accelerating Action on Noncommunicable Diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
30 September 2025, Cairo, Egypt– The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean is convening a high-level virtual side event tomorrow to accelerate progress on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) across the Region. Titled “Turning resolutions into results: leveraging the 4th UN High- Level Meeting to Accelerate Regional Progress on NCDs”, the...
From burden to action: Tunisia steps up the fight against noncommunicable diseases
30 September 2025, Tunis, Tunisia – Tunisia faces one of the highest burdens of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Nearly 86% of deaths are linked to conditions such as cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer. Cardiovascular diseases alone are responsible for more than 30% of all deaths....
Opening remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean at the 6TH Global Mental Health Summit, Doha 2025 Thematic workshop on Strengthening the Public Health Response to Substance Use
30 September 2025 Distinguished colleagues, partners, and friends, Thank you for joining us today at this important workshop. For the first time, the Global Mental Health Summit is dedicating a workshop to substance use disorders—recognizing them as a major public health challenge with far-reaching implications for health, development, and human...
Integrating antimicrobial stewardship and infection control in primary health care facilities
29 September 2025 – Ahead of the Seventy-second Session of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Committee (RC72), Member States and partners shared their experiences of addressing antimicrobial resistance during a pre-RC72 Virtual Week session. Discussions focused on strategies to implement integrated antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and...
WHO Regional Director Concludes Four-Day Visit to Iraq, Strengthening Partnerships for Health and Resilience
Baghdad/Erbil, 20 September 2025 – The Regional Director for the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dr Hanan Balkhy, concluded a five-day official visit to Iraq, where she met with leaders, health officials and communities in Baghdad, Basra and Erbil to reaffirm WHO’s commitment to advancing health for all people in...
Building resilient communities for better health and well-being
29 September 2025 – In October 2021, the 68th session of the WHO Regional Committee endorsed a resolution on “Building Resilient Communities for Better Health and Well-being in the Eastern Mediterranean Region”. The resolution lays out a roadmap for taking necessary action and establish governance space and platforms for engaging communities and...
