Ammon News - The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Middle East Response (MER) as Principal Recipient (PR) organized a high-level regional strategic resource mobilization meeting in Amman.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Global Fund (GF) and Deputy Ministers of Health from different Public Health ministries from Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestinian Territories as well as technical partners, such as WHO, UNAIDS, UNICEF and members of Local Fund Agent, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (TPH).

The meeting also offered a platform for the health ministry leadership from the six countries supported by IOM through the Global Fund grant to engage in discussions on how to effectively utilize resources available to countries through the Middle East Response to achieve national goals and the thematic elimination goal or agenda in terms of Tuberculosis (TB), HIV and Malaria in the Middle East region.

"This high-level meeting of health policymakers from countries covered through the MER along with key partners IOM, UNICEF, WHO, and UNAIDS is the first in a series of strategic regional leadership discussions and prioritization of investment to ‘change the game’ and make prevention, control and even elimination of the three diseases a real consideration and agenda in the most challenging operating environments context," said Emmanuel Olatunji, Fund Portfolio Manager from the Global Fund.

The two-day high-level meeting was opened by the Chief of Mission IOM Jordan, Tajma Kurt. The National Program managers of the three disease control programs will convene later in the week with IOM, WHO, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund, to review the progress of the ongoing MER implementation, address bottlenecks and identify emerging priorities for the next grant cycle 2025-2027.

Jamela Al-Raiby, WHO Representative to Jordan, emphasized the need to support the National TB and National AIDS program in Jordan in their efforts on prevention, control, and elimination: "WHO provided strong technical support to the development of the National Strategic Plan towards TB elimination and introduction of District Health Information Software (DHIS)2 as surveillance platform for TB. We remain committed to continuing our support for the benefit of every resident of Jordan".

"The MER was initially set up as a differentiated response to ensure that supply lines for drugs and diagnostics for the prevention, diagnosis, and control of the three diseases were not interrupted due to the humanitarian crisis in the region," said Nevin Wilson, IOM’s Senior Regional Project Coordinator leading the MER.