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The Eastern Mediterranean Partnership to Stop TBThe Eastern Mediterranean (EM) Partnership to Stop TB was launched on 6 May 2008. The EM Partnership has now its own organizational structure, namely Executive Board, Secretariat including Special Advisors, Resource Mobilization Committee and Working Group to Scale up TB care. Provisional members for the Board, Committee and Working Group were selected, and the Secretariat is hosted at the Stop TB Unit of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office with acting Executive Secretary, Communication Officer and administrative staff. The launch of the EM Partnership was made in the occasion of the 14th Coordinating Board Meeting of the Global Stop TB Partnership in Cairo, Egypt on 6 May 2008. The launch was announced in the opening session of the Coordinating Board which was presided by H.E. The Fist Lady of Egypt, Mrs S Mubarak, Dr H Gezairy, Regional Director of EMRO, Ms I Koek, the chair of the Coordinating Board and Dr M Espinal, Executive Secretary of the global Stop TB Partnership. Details of the EM Partnership were discussed by political, business, and health sector representatives, civil society leaders as well as managers of national TB programmes from the countries of the Region during the 2-day meeting on the launch of EM Partnership. In the meeting, participants strongly endorsed the need for the EM Partnership because; TB is a public health emergency in the Region because despite scaling up of TB care services, TB still kills 110,000 people and gaps in TB care are still wide: TB is not always recognized as priority and usually only governments provide TB care with limited and unsustainable financial resources, and above all the spirit of collective giving which is a prominent cultural phenomenon in the Region has not yet reflected in TB care. The Participants then agreed upon the key structure of the EM Partnership: Executive Board, Secretariat including special advisors, and Resource mobilization Committee and Working Group to scale up TB care, and selected provisional members that would act for, at least, in the coming 6 months. The provisional Board Members include: Prof Tag El Din (Egypt, Chair), Mr Ejaz Raheem (Pakistan, Vice Chair), Dr Kakar (Afghanistan), Mr Al Attar (Syria), Mr Zakaria Shafie (Egypt), Dr Khaled Zaharani (Saudi Arabia), Mr Hassan Bunnia (Iraq), Dr A Seita (WHO/EMRO), Dr Hassan Sadiq (Pakistan), Dr Khaled Abu Rumman (Jordan), Laila Eloui (Egypt). It was agreed to seek four more Board Members from the countries of the Region, particularly from countries of the Maghreb as they are under-represented. Two committees a) Resource Mobilization Committee b) working group to scale up TB care were also constituted by the participants to provide technical & resource mobilization matters. Following were approved as members of the committees: Resource Mobilization Committee Dr Juma Bilal (UAE), Dr Samia Abou El Nagga (Egypt), Dr Salah Al-awaidy (Oman), Ms Katya Hashem (Syria), Mr Mohmaed Bahhrieba (Saudi), Mr Maher Mamlouk (Syria), Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Pakistan), Dr Ibrahim Kerdani & Dr Mojalid (WHO/EMRO), Patient Help Fund (Kuwait), Dr Rafda Askar (Egypt) and for Working group to scale up TB care Dr Naguiba Lotfi (Rotary, Egypt), Dr Hanem Zaher (Civil society, Egypt) and NTP managers from the countries of the Region. The meeting also endorsed WHO/EMRO supported Secretariat and provide acting staff, and also and Dr Zuhair Hallaj, Mr Ejaz Rahim and Dr Kazem Behbahani as Special Advisers for the Partnership. After the establishment of the key structure of the EM Partnership, the participants agreed and signed the Cairo Declaration, a statement and a pledge by the participants. A gala event was also held at the night of 6 May to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of WHO and launch of the EM Partnership to Stop TB. Board Meetings |
