3 November 2021 – TDR, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the WHO Health Security Preparedness Department are pleased to announce the 13 recipients of grants to conduct research on health security preparedness.

Health emergencies pose significant risks to communities, organizations and governments across the world. Hazardous events create the risk of morbidity and mortality, interruption of essential health services, and wider uncertainty and economic disruption. Improving health security and preparedness can help avert these harmful, and often inequitable impacts.

Operational and implementation research should be a key part of the design and review of preparedness programmes at country level. Yet there is a scarcity of research and development in health security/emergency preparedness, especially in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, which can guide national and sub-national decision-making and the development of guidance for emergency preparedness at national, regional and global levels. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the challenge of effectively measuring the presence of such capacities and the need for more research in these areas of work.

To address this gap, grants have been awarded for 13 projects from nine countries that will document, synthesize and disseminate evidence of capacities for implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005), health security and health emergency preparedness. 

Country	Grant recipient Last Name	Grant recipient First Name	Project title
Islamic Republic of Iran	Hoveidamanesh	Soodabeh	A survey of the COVID-19 infodemic and social media in Iran and proposed strategies for managing it
Islamic Republic of Iran	Yarmohammadian	Mohammad	Designing an integrated resilient system for promoting inter-organizational partnership for the health system (emphasis on networking in disasters and emergencies)
Jordan	Jalabneh	Rawan	Upholding quality and patient safety during COVID-19 across  public, private, military and university-affiliated hospitals in Jordan
Lebanon	Haddad	Nadine	Roadmap for national post-COVID-19 recovery strategy for children under 18 years old in Lebanon
Occupied Palestinian Territory	Abu Ali	Khaled	Evaluation of IHR (2005) implementation in Palestine in the context of a variety of crises
Pakistan	Naz	Sumera	Assessing the capacity of the provincial laboratory system of Khyber Pakhtun Khua province of Pakistan in accordance with IHR indicators for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
Pakistan	Jabeen	Aleya	Evaluation of Infection Prevention and Control implementation and level of health security preparedness at subnational facility level in underdeveloped areas of Pakistan
Qatar	Bansal	Devendra	Pandemic fatigue, risk perceptions and their effects on adherence to protective measures against COVID-19 in craft and manual workers in Qatar
Sudan	Ibrahim	Motaz	Assessment of influencing role of risk communication and community engagement strategies in community response to COVID-19 vaccination programmes
Sudan	Ismail	Salwa	Assessing the multi-sectorial coordinated efforts toward strengthening the public health security in Sudan`s COVID-19 response
United Arab Emirates	Aljawarneh	Yousef	The associations between risk perception, cognitive fatigue, stigma and quality of life with long-term implementation of social measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UAE: a correlational study.
Yemen	Abdul-Ghani	Rashad	COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its associated predictors among healthcare providers in Sana’a city, Yemen

For more information, please contact  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  at TDR,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  at WHO’s Health Security Preparedness Department, or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  at the WHO Regional Office.