His Excellency the Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah and His Excellency the President of Umm Al-Qura University Dr. Bakri Assas signed today (Thursday), a memo of understanding between the Ministry of Health (MOH), represented by the Global Center for Mass Gathering Medicine and the university, represented by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research. The agreement calls for cooperation between the two parties in mass health program to enhance health and safety of pilgrims and visitors of the two holy mosques, including establishment of developmental, educational and training programs, as well as building national cadres in all fields of mass gathering health such as mass gathering management (planning and preparation), emergency medicine and crisis management.
Also, the agreement includes building relationships between local and international organizations and a communication network to exchange information and development of studies, as well as implementation of activities agreed upon and researches pertaining to the institute and center fields of work, particularly mass gathering health and management program. Moreover, it includes establishing a database for studies and researches about development of partnership plans for the departments concerned in the field of mass health and management, in addition to developing plans and work mechanism to activate community contribution to the mass health and management in collaboration with the concerned parties, as well as notifying each other of any projects or programs of mutual concern to coordinate efforts thereof, and holding executive and training programs whenever the need arises.
On the other hand, AL-Rabiah and President of the Islamic Development Bank Dr. Bandar Hajjar signed an agreement of joint cooperation between the two sides. The agreement calls for cooperation in the mass health program to promote the health and safety of pilgrims and visitors of the two holy mosques, including training of appropriate personnel from the ministry and related sectors in the Kingdom and other Islamic countries, as well as encouraging applied researches in order to support and facilitate Hajj and Umrah services and exchange of expertise and visits between the global center for mass gathering medicine and similar programs in the member countries, besides continuing support for awareness campaigns and media outreach programs.
The two parties expressed willingness to cooperate in the field of developing a vaccine against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-COV), and working for holding global forums in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) with the participation of the relevant authorities in the Islamic countries. They also agreed on cooperation and coordination to support the health cities initiative and its application in the Kingdom, and the ministry's proposal of researching and evaluating the health impacts resulting from implementation of various economic development projects and the ministry efforts to prevent and control the non-communicable diseases to draw out lessons from them and spread good practices in the other Islamic communities and countries. In addition to partnering in organization of scientific seminars and workshops which review the health issues in general and other mutually agreed upon areas, besides notifying each other with any projects and programs of mutual interest for coordinating their efforts As per the agreement the two sides will support the efforts of the ministry and the bank member states to promote the health issues and easing the effects of weak social determinants of health within the tasks, role and power vested in the ministry, and at the same time working to strengthen capabilities of the bank member states and Islamic communities in non-member states to provide them with quality health services and develop health facilities and institutions in the context of the ministry's authorities.
It is noteworthy that these steps comes within the context of community participation program initiatives recently adopted by the ministry with the aim of creating different opportunities for the community components to involve in the health development in the short, medium and long run and motivate them to effectively contribute to meet the health needs of the community through the principle of cooperation and integration.