Representatives from several champion institutions have gathered in Cairo on 28 & 29 January for the first partnership meeting of the EMR-SDG Learning Platform. The meeting was organized by Social Research Center of the American University of Cairo, and the participants were high-level delegates from three pilot countries: Egypt (Ministry of Planning and the Central Agency of Statistical), Jordan (High Health Council and Ministry of Health), Morocco (Ministry of Health and National Observatory for Human Development), in addition to a representative from the League of Arab States. Several independent experts on health and sustainable development in the Arab region have also joined the meeting, which is the first concrete step in building an effective regional network aiming at the enhancement of efforts to achieve health-related SDGs.

Over two days, participants discussed the potentials of the EMR-SDGs Learning Platform and suggested measures that could contribute to its usefulness and regional relevance. Country delegates discussed their experiences in health-related SDGs monitoring and shared challenges as well as success stories. Experts addressed opportunities and challenges related to three focus topics: universal health coverage, health equity, and localizing SDGs. Country delegates welcomed the new insights and expressed their interest in learning more and adopting the proposed tools and approaches.