UAE has built 100 hospitals in world’s poorest countries, says senior official

The UAE has built 100 hospitals in poor countries as the leadership believes that no child should die or be debilitated by a preventable disease, a senior official said on Monday.

“For the UAE, global health is part of its foreign policy and economic prosperity agenda. We do this through collaborative approaches, but specifically long-term and innovative collaborations, not through short-term projects,” said Dr Maha Barakat, assistant minister for health and life science at the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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“Everything we do is underpinned by the vision of our leadership, The President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who believes that no child should die or be debilitated by a preventable disease. If you look at what the country has been doing for many years, in terms of official development assistance, we have most of the last 10 years we've been either the top or near the top of the donor countries as a percentage of the gross national income,” she said during a panel discussion on the first day of the Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

For several consecutive years, the UAE has ranked first globally as the largest donor of humanitarian aid.

“Polio is an example. We don't give loans to countries, especially the ones that are heavily in debt. The UAE mostly gives grants, which are really helpful to some of the poorest countries… We have projects around the world. We have built over 100 hospitals in some of the poorest countries,” she said during the panel discussion, highlighting that charity projects were also launched by the UAE's founding father, late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, and Dr Mekdes Daba, minister of health in Ethiopia, also attended the panel discussion.

Waheed Abbas

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.