User:Alduaij/Kuwait Health Initiative

The Kuwait Health Initiative (KHI) is an independent, not-for-profit and non-political organization of reformists dedicated to health policy research. It is based in Kuwait and began its work in October 2005 by its founding members Drs. Nadeem Al-Duaij and Bibi Alamiri. Its mission involves primarily the promotion of equitable health sector reform in Kuwait and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Its member base consists of "health activists" with backgrounds in medicine, public health, law, philosophy, business, environmental sciences, engineering, among others. The organization believes in the need for a rights-based approach to reform that targets users of the health system, particularly destitute populations.

History
In October 2005, founders Bibi Alamiri and Nadeem Al-Duaij began a weblog entitled "Kuwait Health" to expose public health deficiencies in the Kuwaiti health sector and provide viable solutions to overcome a growing burden of chronic diseases. By highlighting the need to understand the public health needs of the region, they attracted a growing pool of likeminded experts, members of civil society organizations and the general public to their cause and proceeded to create a unique forum through which projects in public health could stem and thrive.

Later, in 2008, the core leadership of the Kuwait Health team established a formal Board of Directors and changed the entity's name to Kuwait Health Initiative symbolizing a movement of change in a troubled health sector. Through various interventions in research, advocacy, policy-making and education, the KHI team continues to encourage capacity building in public health policy that will provide guidance to policy-makers throughout the region.

Mission & Objectives
The purpose for which the KHI was formed is to promote equity, transparency, integrity, sustainability, quality of care, and user satisfaction in Kuwait's health sector through research, public and provider education, advocacy and political action.

The following represent the core principles by which the KHI stands:

Every individual should have access to health services in an equitable and ethically sound manner irrespective of race, religion, gender, nationality, or socioeconomic status;

Substantial and sustainable improvements in the health sector will only be achieved through a greater focus on primary care services, including preventive medicine;

Basic health services for the low income, disabled, unemployed, pediatric, and geriatric populations should be subsidized and offered at a minimal cost to the employed;

Human rights in health should be maintained and protected at all levels of the society through legislation and advocacy;

Any legal or behavioral distinctions between national and expatriate employees or patients of the health system must be averted;

Reform of the health sector is best practiced through an evidence-based approach and with the support of experts in public health policy, management, and financing;

Public health education should be encouraged at all levels of the health sector.

To promote the aforementioned principles, the KHI will proceed to:

Engage in alliances with local, regional and international non-governmental organizations, governmental agencies, civil society organizations, and leading academic and research institutions to better understand and analyze our health systems;

Define evidence-based proposals to implement equitable health sector reform strategies by uniting experts from sectors directly or indirectly related to health;

Expose inequalities in the health sector through collaborative research with human rights, social development, and public health ethics groups;

Develop a universal plan to improve the quality of health care services;

Organize public health educational activities for the users, employees and other major stakeholders of the health sector.

Activities
The KHI is engaged in several projects to improve the Kuwaiti health system.