Cairo, 4 December 2022- Twenty-three experts from the WHO Regional Offices for the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa met in Kigali, Rwanda, participated in training for research on attacks on health care workshop between 21 and 26 November 2022.
The workshop aimed to demystify the operational research process and build capacity of frontline workers to identify evidence gaps in operational protection and prevention measures against attacks while identifying approaches to collect, analyse, and disseminate evidence for operational guidance.
Participants were provided with the vital tools to identify research topics related to attacks on health care and their impact on health service delivery and by the end of the training 21 research proposals were developed for evaluation and operational research addressing gaps in evidence.
“WHO is taking attacks on health care with extreme concern as they deprive people from urgently needed life-saving essential health services, and most particularly in contexts where access to health care is already limited,” said Dr Samar Al-Mutawakel, WHO Regional Attacks on Health Care Focal Point for the Eastern Mediterranean.
“Operational research-generating evidence that addresses the existing evidence gaps in this area of work is the cornerstone for supporting better prevention, protection and response measures against attacks,” added Dr Al-Mutawakel.
In 2012, WHO launched its own the Attacks on Health Care initiative at the request of Member States (WHA Res 65.20) to address the issue of attacks on health care in countries and territories affected by complex humanitarian emergencies. Since then, the Attacks on Health Care initiative has been implemented in 18 settings, including 8 in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and 6 in the African Region.
