The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and partners of Action on Diabetes (AoD), will host Qatar’s first International Diabetes Leadership Forum on September 26 and 27.
Held under the patronage of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, dozens of world-leading experts will convene in Doha.
The forum will address the challenge of combating diabetes in Qatar and bring together leading diabetes experts and academics, patient organisations, healthcare professionals and NGOs from around the world with leaders from the healthcare sector, policy makers, and government officials from Qatar and the other GCC countries.
The forum organised by MoPH and AoD partners – Hamad Medical Corp, Primary Healthcare Corp, Qatar Diabetes Association, Novo Nordisk and Maersk Oil Qatar, in collaboration with its sponsors – World Diabetes Foundation, International Diabetes Federation and Qatar Airways, aims to confront the major health challenges presented by diabetes.
The forum is also supported by the Qatar Metabolic Institute which is a multi-institutional collaboration on metabolic diseases and in particular diabetes.
The two-day forum will confirm the urgency of the need to act, spelling out the steps to meet the challenges in a holistic and co-ordinated manner and encouraging local partners to play their part in defeating them.
HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, said: “The forum presents a unique opportunity for leaders in our country from both the government and private sectors to come together to discuss the huge challenge presented by diabetes to our society. A total of 16.7% of the Qatari population is estimated to suffer from the disease.
If we are to significantly reduce this number, it is critical that all parties from across different sectors work together in a cohesive and co-ordinated manner to turn our National Diabetes Strategy into reality.”
Al-Kuwari also stressed the eagerness of the Ministry of Public Health to make use of the best local and international practises to guarantee the successful implementation of the National Diabetes Strategy and the ambitious health programmes associated with it.
“We are expecting extremely engaging discussions during the forum around the execution of the National Strategy plans with input from key diabetes experts from across the globe.”
“We hope that the event will highlight the weight of the health, economic, financial and social burden of diabetes on the political agenda, emphasise the size of the issue and establish a co-ordinated approach to tackling the disease,” she added.
The event will build a framework for cross sector public-private and public-public partnerships crucial to success in tackling diabetes and will draw on international experts’ experience to ensure the successful implementation of the National Diabetes Strategy.
It will also explore the most effective model for bringing together ministers and various organisations interested in tackling diabetes by discussing how to co-ordinate activity and ensuring support for the implementation of the strategy.
The participants will collaborate on developing a road map for the successful roll out of the strategy to tackle the issue of diabetes in Qatar that was developed by the National Diabetes Committee and launched last year.
Through a series of workshops, plenary sessions, and partnership meetings, they will share ideas, inspiration and experience to shape plans for actionable implementation of the strategy in the coming year.
The Diabetes Leadership Forum will build on lessons from previous leadership forums held in New York (2007), Moscow (2008), Beijing (2009), Mena (Dubai 2010), Copenhagen (2012) and Istanbul (2013).

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