25 February 2020 | Cairo - Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, has inaugurated the first meeting of the reconstituted Eastern Mediterranean Advisory Committee on Health Research (EM-ACHR), held on 17–18 February 2020 at the Regional Office under its new mandate for the period 2020–2023.
The objectives of the meeting were to: review health research plans and activities, as supported by the Regional Office; discuss best methods for supporting health research systems and institutions in the Region; review current mechanisms for health research governance in the Regional Office, with an emphasis on efforts to develop ethics review committees in Member States; and discuss effective means of knowledge translation, dissemination and utilization for health policy-making in the Region. EM-ACHR members joined from Bahrain, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and USA. The main outcomes of the meeting included advice on supporting research for health in the Region, with special emphasis on health research systems, and suggested modalities for strengthening health research capacities and governance, as well as recommendations on the translation and use of generated research evidence in support of health policy-making and practice in the Region.
