ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A significant summit took place in Sulaimani on Tuesday, with the goal of connecting the Kurdistan Region with global medical advancements.
The Kurdistan Health Summit held its third edition in Sulaimani with the participation of 2,000 people from nearly 40 countries, 14 international organizations and 25 local and international universities.
“There are big gaps in Kurdistan Region’s health sector. There are even bigger gaps in Kurdistan Region’s public health,” Aras Bradosti, President of Kurdistan Health Summit, told Rudaw.
“There is a general health direction in the world, of which Kurdistan is not aware. Therefore, one of the objectives of the Kurdistan Health Summit is to use its diplomatic relations to inform the Kurdistan Region about the medical advancements and take it to these directions,” he added.
The three-day event is taking place under the auspices of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.
“I feel like we have a huge responsibility to fix the health of the Region’s residents [in particular] and Iraq residents as a whole,” he told Rudaw on the sidelines of the summit.
He promised to help the summit in its efforts to boost the health sector in Iraq.
“The government has a long-term plan to improve services and repair things damaged by environmental pollution,” he noted.
The Kurdistan Health Summit is a partner of the World Health Summit, an international conference that has been held in Berlin every October since 2009.
Iraq is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, including through water and food insecurity, according to the United Nations. It is currently facing a severe water shortage because of reduced precipitation, higher temperatures, and waste and mismanagement. The crisis is worsened by the building of upstream dams in Turkey and Iran which have led to a significant decrease in the volume of water entering the country.
In a letter addressed to the Board of Environmental Protection and Improvement in February, the Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers approved a petition from the board to establish a climate change office. The office will consist of two departments: Mitigation and Loss and Damage.
Scorching temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius were recorded in Iraq in 2023, coupled with water scarcity, desertification, and reduced rainfall.
According to the UN, over 130,000 people in southern Iraq are prone to displacement by the end of 2023 due to the effects of climate change.
Goshan Karadaghi, executive director of the Kurdistan Health Summit, talked about the summit and its objectives.
“This is our third Kurdistan Health Summit in the Kurdistan Region. We are excited to continue the efforts of the Kurdistan Health Summit group in trying to bring public health to the forefront of medical discourse and discussion. Over the next three days, we have a number of panels organized that span the topics of primary primary healthcare, public health,” she told Rudaw English.
She added that the topics of climate change, water shortage and AI will also be discussed.
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