In a conference organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), experts in healthcare services delivery for refugees from different sectors are gathered at the Dead Sea in Jordan this week. They will address an urgent issue – how to improve the quality of healthcare services delivered to refugee populations with diabetes – and will discuss the best prevention and treatment practices used internationally.
‘The International Conference on Refugees and Diabetes’, held under the patronage of HRH Princess Muna Al-Hussein from 10 to 12 April, brings together more than 75 representatives of United Nations organizations; Ministries of Health from Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine; bilateral agencies; civil society organizations; academia; and the private sector. While the focus will be on refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, other regions with refugee challenges, such as West Africa, will also be represented.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 422 million people worldwide who currently have diabetes, and almost 80 percent of them live in developing countries. If current trends continue, diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. However, efforts to provide diabetes prevention and care in low-resource settings face many challenges, including lack of awareness about the disease and its prevention, lack of access to proper care, and environments not supportive to healthy living.
HRH Princess Muna Al-Hussein
There is also mounting evidence that poor maternal health increases the risk of diabetes for both the mother and her children, creating a vicious cycle of susceptibility to this chronic disease for future generations. These challenges increase significantly in refugee situations, as they may also be challenged with restricted access to food, healthy activities, medicines, and the treatment of diabetes and its complications.
“There are now nearly 21.3 million refugees worldwide. There is an urgent need for joint efforts by all stakeholders to address the growing threat that diabetes poses to this vulnerable population,” says Dr. Akihiro Seita, the Director of the UNRWA Health Programme.
“Diabetes places a great burden on individual refugees, their families, and the health-care staff and systems that serve them. Trends in the Palestine refugee population illustrate the size of the problem. In 1992, UNRWA treated 14,500 people with diabetes – today, it treats more than 150,000, and the number is increasing by 4 to 5 percent each year. But there are steps we can take. We look forward to working with colleagues throughout the region and around the world to improve the health and prospects of refugees with diabetes.”
The International Conference on Refugees and Diabetes will offer an opportunity for participants to share their experiences and best practices concerning diabetes prevention and management among refugees. It will also help in establishing a joint coordination mechanism between different key organizations providing non-communicable disease (NCD) care – in particular, diabetes care – to refugees.
In addition, experts participating in this conference will identify tools for the provision of NCD care during emergencies and refugee situations, including the medicines and medical devices required to manage the most common NCDs in primary care. At the end of the conference, working groups with key relevant organizations from refugee host countries will be established to ensure the implementation of agreed-upon action plans and to enhance the sustainability of quality diabetes care for refugees.
“For many years, the World Diabetes Foundation has been involved in serving refugees who are living with diabetes. Having diabetes as a refugee has a significant, deleterious effect on the quality of life,” says Dr. Anders Dejgaard, Managing Director of the World Diabetes Foundation.
“We look very much forward to sharing our experiences and listening to others in order to establish an action plan. A multisectoral approach is needed to address this growing threat to millions of refugees worldwide.”
During the conference, an Action Plan with practical solutions for improving coordinated diabetes care for refugees will be created, and a Call to Action will be endorsed by the participants. Afterward, a summary of the meeting’s findings and commitments will be compiled and published through different stakeholders’ websites, social media, and other communication channels.
