A seminar with Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of the Health and WHO Special Representative at UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East).
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has provided support to Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and in the Occupied Palestine territories. Today, however, conflict and violence, occupation, high levels of poverty, and other social determinants of health jeopardize the wellbeing of Palestine refugees. Additionally, UNRWA is continuing to face a severe funding crisis. Dr. Seita, the director of health department, will be discussing how UNRWA, since 1950, has developed a unique health-care system to serve Palestine refugees, providing access to the most needed and essential health-care services and continues to demonstrate resilience. He will demonstrate how UNRWA has demands the international community and civil societies break through the silence and support UNRWA in upholding the fundamental human rights and dignity of Palestine refugees.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Global Health Delivery-Dubai at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Akihiro Seita is the Director of the Health and WHO Special Representative at UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East) HQ in Amman, Jordan since 2011. UNRWA provides primary health care to 5.4 million Palestine Refugees in the Near East with 144 health centers with 3500 staff. Dr. Seita is the leader in health reform. He manages the UNRWA health reform through family medicine approach (family health team). He introduced the e-health covering 3.4 million patients records. He is the innovator in health. With e-health, he introduced a cohort analysis for diabetes and introduced a smartphone application on maternal and child health booklet. He is a strong advocate for Palestine refugees' health, and published articles on Lancet, including "No health without peace" (November, 2016), "Amid US funding cuts, UNRWA appeals for health and dignity of Palestinian refugees" (19 January 2018) and "Health and dignity of Palestine refugees at stake" (22 Dec 2018). Prior to UNRWA, he was the coordinator for tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria at WHO/EMRO. He received the Princess Chichibu Memorial TB Award for Global Contribution in 2014, and Takemi Life Science Award in 2017.
