Who Does the Prep Work? Stakeholder Rought Across 22 MENA Countries

When countries in the Middle East and North Africa try to get ready for epidemics and pandemics, they rely on lots of different sectors working together. The region has had its share of outbreaks, but there wasn't much information available about who is actually involved in the prep work and how their responsibilities are split up. To fill that gap, researchers looked at publicly available online sources to map out stakeholders across 22 MENA countries. They used the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control framework to sort and categorize the roles they found. Altogether, 3555 stakeholder roles were identified. The breakdown showed that coordination and communication dominated with 38.4 percent, while health services accounted for 32.0 percent. Emergency risk communication was surprisingly

small at 4.1 percent, and policy development, adaptation, and implementation was even smaller at 6.6 percent. Looking at the workforce side, emergency management roles were the largest group at 42.6 percent. Public health professionals made up 28.3 percent, and clinicians were 19.4 percent. What stood out was how much things varied by country income level. Wealthier countries had more policy-related roles, while poorer countries had a heavier emphasis on operational tasks. Gender also played a part: women held 31.5 percent of all recorded roles, though that number shifted depending on the income bracket. The takeaway is that stakeholder involvement isn't spread evenly across the region. Each country and income setting handles preparedness differently, meaning a one-size-fits-all approach won't cut it.

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