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Although MENA countries encounter several political and economic disparities and challenges, they are on track to accomplishing larger health-related goals.
FREMONT, CA: Despite modest growth, the Middle East and North African region have significantly reduced morbidity and mortality patterns and other health status measures in the last couple of decades. These health attainments are fundamentally attributed to health services, public health program expansion, and educational and socioeconomic developments.
Compared with other countries with similar per capita income, the World Bank revealed that the MENA performed favorably on human development indicators in general and particularly on health outcomes.
MENA countries had worse health indicators in child mortality and life expectancy as proxies in 1960 than comparable countries, and the gap was eliminated by 2000. The average infant mortality rate for the region has dropped over time, and life expectancy at birth has increased significantly. However, these regional achievements mask differences among and within the countries. For instance, the World Bank estimated the infant mortality rate in 2012 ranged from 10 per 1000 live births in Kuwait to 46 in Yemen. In 2008, Egypt’s infant mortality rates were 42 per 1,000 live births among the poorest-income quintile households and 17 per 1,000 live births among the highest-income ones in the country.
The economic diversity in MENA countries categorizes them into three primary groups that differ according to their economic and health outcomes. The first classification is for low-income countries with the region's highest infant mortality rates and maternal mortality ratios and encountering critical health-related challenges. Following this are the middle-income countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, etc. These regions have made considerable progress in improving health outcomes, although some continue to face rural or urban disparities in health outcomes and health coverage gaps. The final group is the high-income countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG), achieving good health outcomes as a benefit derived from oil revenues used to obtain universal access to health services.
Political conflicts in many countries have significantly impacted health outcomes and system development. In the last few years, political uprisings, protests, and armed conflicts have severely affected many regions, and a few protests and conflicts continue to this day. MENA countries joined several other national governments in pledging support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a global effort to track key development achievements between 1990 and 2015. The region continues to encounter development challenges such as rapid population growth, high unemployment among youth, water scarcity, socioeconomic disparities, and gender inequality that threaten MDG achievement.
Despite these challenges, most countries in the MENA region are on track to achieve health-related objectives, including reducing maternal mortality, child mortality, and HIV, TB, and malaria morbidity and mortality. As previously mentioned, this overall regional picture is exacerbated by differences in MDG accomplishment between and within countries that suffer from severe wealth disparity.
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