Tribune News Network
Doha
The Middle East Council on Global Affairs (ME Council) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation organised a roundtable and a high-level panel discussion during the Doha Forum. The two events, held under the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative (DGSHPI), brought together representatives from six Global South countries, Nigeria, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Malawi, as well as international experts, and key Qatari stakeholders from the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar Fund for Development, Qatar University, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Charity, and Qatar Red Crescent.
Participants deliberated on the challenges and solutions for improving access to primary healthcare services in the Global South and agreed on several actionable next steps, including potential catalytic action projects to address the identified issues.
The next convening of the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative scheduled in 2025 will include several events and activities to facilitate knowledge exchange and strengthen technical cooperation and collaboration.
Dr Chris Elias, president of the Global Development Division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, highlighted: “This initiative offers health leaders from the Global South a new platform to voice their priorities and challenges and elevate the local solutions they have identified for programme implementation. Global South health technical experts possess the knowledge and ability to improve access to healthcare that, when shared and scaled, can lead to major advancements in health and development, even in the most remote and challenging environments.”
Dr Tarik Yousef, director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said: “The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative is an important and timely effort to bridge the gap between vision and action in global health. By bringing together senior public health officials and experts from the Global South, this platform is designed to address implementation bottlenecks and foster practical, sustainable solutions tailored to local contexts. The initiative reflects Qatar’s commitment to fostering impactful South-South cooperation.”
To support the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative, the Gates Foundation has signed a grant partnership with the Middle East Council
The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative was launched in February 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
The Initiative is a partnership between the Middle East Council on Global Affairs and the Gates Foundation, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, to create an innovative platform that aims to leverage the experience and knowhow of senior public officials from the Global South in identifying bottlenecks to program implementation and exploring solutions for improved service delivery to enhance global health outcomes.
