Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine: Special Issue 50-4bokBW | Page 31

J Rehabil Med 2018; 50: 333–337 SPECIAL REPORT RESPONDING TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION GLOBAL DISABILITY ACTION PLAN IN EGYPT: A TECHNICAL CONSULTATION TO DEVELOP A NATIONAL DISABILITY, HEALTH AND REHABILITATION PLAN Christoph GUTENBRUNNER, MD, PhD, FRCP and Boya NUGRAHA, MS, PhD Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany Objective: A technical consultation to develop a National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan (NDHRP) for Egypt was carried out in 2015. Its overall goal was to improve health, functioning, well-being, quality of life, and participation of persons with disability in Egypt by supporting the Ministry of Health and Population and other stake- holders to improve access to health services and strengthen health-related rehabilitation services for all persons in need. Methods: The methodological steps of the techni- cal consultation were as follows: collecting and reviewing accessible documents and data; site vi- sits to state institutions, health and rehabilitation services; discussions with relevant stakeholders in rehabilitation, including persons with disability; drafting recommendations based on the principles of the World Report on Disability and the World Health Organization Global Disability Action Plan and the information collected; discussion with sta- keholders in a workshop; and preparation of a final report. Results and discussion: The development of a NDHRP was successful and led to recommenda- tions with a good level of consensus among sta- keholders in Egypt. The authors hope that the NDHRP will lead to improved rehabilitation service provision, and health and quality of life of persons with disability and chronic health conditions living in Egypt. Key words: rehabilitation service situation analysis; rehabilitation advisory teams; National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan; rehabilitation servi- ces; rehabilitation professions; Egypt. Accepted Nov 17, 2017; Epub ahead of print Jan 31, 2018 J Rehabil Med 2018: 50: 333–337 Correspondence address: Christoph Gutenbrunner, De- partment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, DE-30625 Hannover, Ger- many. E-mail: [email protected] E gypt has a rapidly growing population. The estimated population in 2009 was 84 million, and in 2013 it exceeded 90 million. Approximately 31% of the population is under 15 years old and only 9% is over 60 years old (1). Life expectancy at birth is 70 years for males and 74 years for females. Healthy life expectancy is 59 and 74 years in males and in females, respectively. Egypt is classified by World Bank as a lower-middle income country. Health expenditure is 5.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) (2). In 2015, a technical consultation was carried out to develop a National Disability, Health and Re- habilitation Plan (NDHRP) for Egypt. The overall goal of the technical consultation was to improve health, functioning, well-being, quality of life, and participation of persons with disability in Egypt by supporting the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) and other stakeholders to improve INTR access to health services and to strengthen health-related rehabilitation services for all persons in need. The NDHRP should be based on an analysis of the present life situation of persons with disability, existing services, and international standards. It should help the government of Egypt to respond to proposed action for World Health Organization (WHO) member states set out in the Global Disa- bility Action Plan 2014–2021: Better Health for all People with Disability (GDAP; 3). The plan should analyse the existing situation, including epidemio- logical data, policies, health services, challenges, opportunities, gaps and other factors. METHODS The technical consultation was performed as de- scribed by Gutenbrunner et al. (4). The stages of the consultation (5) were: • Review accessible documents and data about population, health and disability, health systems, policies and services in Egypt. • Make site visits to state institutions, health and rehabilitation services, and hold discussions with relevant stakeholders in rehabilitation, including persons with disability. • Develop draft recommendation on the basis of the principles of the World Report on Disability (WRD) and the GDAP and the information col- lected. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. www.medicaljournals.se/jrm Journal Compilation © 2018 Foundation of Rehabilitation Information. ISSN 1650-1977 doi: 10.2340/16501977-2307