JEDDAH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) and the World Health Organization (WHO) met on Sunday in Riyadh to further strengthen cooperation in implementing KSRelief-funded projects in Yemen’s health sector. 

During the meeting, Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, reaffirmed priorities to strengthen partnerships with local organizations such as KSRelief in order to tackle the region’s most pressing issues more effectively. A memorandum on cooperation was signed by the two organizations in April. 

Over the past two years, KSRelief has funded eight active WHO projects worth up to $43 million to contain the cholera epidemic in Yemen.

“Given that the WHO is renowned for its technical know-how in the health domain and KSRelief has a humanitarian aid and relief mandate, we can further collaborate to ensure more effective solutions are found for this and other regional crises,” said Al-Mandhari.

KSRelief has donated $930 million to UN agencies and other aid organizations to support implementation of the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. The WHO supports 269 health facilities in the country.