Amman, 28/02/2023 – 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 on 26 and 27 February 2023. 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 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 Mr Emmanuel Olatunji, Fund Portfolio Manager from the Global Fund.

The two-day high-level meeting was opened by the Chief of Mission IOM Jordan, Ms Tajma Kurt. The National programme managers of the three disease control programmes 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.

Dr Jamela Al-Raiby, WHO Representative to Jordan, emphasized on the need to support the National TB and National AIDS programme 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 continue 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 Dr Nevin Wilson, IOM’s Senior Regional Project Coordinator leading the MER. “It has evolved and consolidated into a strategic investment of the Global Fund demonstrating progress against the three diseases prioritizing the most vulnerable populations through partnerships, innovation and collaboration”.

From 2017 until today, the GF has invested over 160 million USD in MER through three phases and has further allocated 54 million USD for a fourth phase (2025-2027), bringing the total investment in MER to

US$215 million. The GF commitments include the fight against the spread of three diseases in the region as well as mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between 2017 and 2022, the MER has notified cumulatively 104,120 patients with drug-sensitive tuberculosis and 943 patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Cumulatively, 6,132 people living with HIV receive antiretroviral therapy through the MER and 218,010 people were able to access voluntary counselling and testing to ascertain their HIV status. A total of 5,269,738 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed to most at risk populations in Yemen thereby protecting more than 10 million people from malaria. The fund significantly supports building Resilient, Sustainable System for Health (RSSH) though providing mobile vans, X-ray machines, GeneXpert machines, other medical equipment.

The civil society organizations (CSOs) are also involved in the implementation of MER grant and continue to offer catalytic effect to the biomedical interventions related to the three diseases.

For more information, please contact: IOM Media and Communications Officer, Fedza Lukovac flukovac@iom.int