Committee established to develop the National Environmental Health Strategy

The Committee will consist of representatives from the following organizations: Ministry of Health (Dr. Mahmoud Fikree); Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (Zaid Dawoud Al Siksik and Jens Thompson); Health Authority of Dubai (Dr. Ali Hassan Al Marzouqi); Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (Dr. Jaber Eidha Al Jaberi); Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (Dr. Mariam Hareb Al Yousef and Moza Al Mehairi); Ministry of Environment and Water (Dr. Mariam Al Shenasi) and SEHA (Rashed Khalifa Al Rumaithi and Yasin Al Ramahi).

The Committee is tasked with ensuring development of the National Environmental Health Strategy.

The Committee will also supervise closely the role of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which has been chosen to lead a team of specialists in environmental sciences and public health.

The Committee is also responsible for evaluating the periodical performance reports, in coordination with the World Health Organization.

The Committee will also ensure the development and implementation of a training programme of UAE nationals to capacity build them to follow up on the project after the contract with UNC expires.

The Committee will last for 3 years and will meet every 3 months.

The committee's recommendations will be raised to the Chairman of EAD.

The National Environment Health Strategy was recently approved by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

The Strategy aims to identify priority health threats caused by environmental factors in the UAE, estimate the burden of disease caused by these factors, identify mitigation strategies, and strengthen the capacity of the UAE government in this arena.

EAD has organized earlier this month a kick-off workshop for the project to provide an opportunity for stakeholders concerned with environment and health issues to learn about the project, share their information and thoughts, and plan for their own future engagement over the project's duration. During the workshop EAD signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with University Of North Carolina School Of Public Health and WHO to start implements this project.