Description

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the world’s most rapidly transforming regions, politically, economically, demographically and environmentally. The MENA region with 578 million of habitants is a highly populated, culturally diverse region spanning three continents. Indeed, the MENA population is larger than USA´s and almost similar to Europe´s populations. Moreover, it is expected that it surpasses China in terms of total population in the future. The donation activity within the region has historically registered one of the lowest rates with an average of 3.5 donors pmp. This situation has unfortunately opened the door to organ trafficking and transplant tourism. During the last 5 years some countries from the MENA Region have been increasing their activity, although they still have long road ahead before achieving self-sufficiency in organ donation. The objective of this session is to facilitate an open space to share practices about the key strategies to create a deceased donation program in countries with unique cultural, economic and demographic characteristics. Considering the advantage of virtual meetings facilitating the participation of a broad number of country representatives, this session represents the opportunity to provide a stage to the pioneers from MENA region countries and listen to their experiences.