Geneva: Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari has said that Qatar has pioneered in behavioural sciences on health policy planning and uses its insights to ensure a healthy and safe FIFA World Cup.
Speaking at a strategic roundtable on Behavioural Sciences for Better Health held on the sidelines of 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Minister said in 2016, the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy launched B4Development, the first behavioural insights unit in the Arab world and the Middle East.
Dr. Al Kuwari said that the Ministry of Public Health and B4Development have been working very closely with behavioural experts over the last few years before and after the pandemic to address critical public health issues in the country.
The session opened by setting out the importance of behavioural sciences on health policy and planning. Behavioural sciences focus on understanding why specific behaviours and decision-making processes occur by investigating the drivers of and barriers to health-related behaviours that operate in a specific context at the cognitive, social and environmental levels.
Dr. Al Kuwari explained how Qatar has been using behavioural science to promote healthy lifestyles, getting people to eat healthy diets and regularly engage in physical activity, as well as addressing many risk factors of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the need to use principles and methods of behavioural science for addressing and controlling the spread of communicable diseases. Indeed, the use of behavioural science methods has been particularly important during the pandemic.
Her Excellency said that it was critical to gain a clear understanding of why specific behaviours and decision-making processes occur.
Behavioural insights played a central in Qatar’s planning and implementation of multiple COVID-19 areas, including ensuring compliance with social distancing, hand hygiene and restrictions; increasing trust in, and utilisation of online mental health services; and enabling high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines through a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of vaccine hesitancy.
When asked how Qatar plans to use behavioural insights during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, H E the Minister explained how Qatar is using behavioural insights to ensure a healthy and safe FIFA World Cup.
A primary use will be to drive healthy eating in stadiums and fan zones this is a major initiative that has been the subject of the joint efforts between Qatar, FIFA and the WHO, in particular, to leverage the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 to promote healthier lifestyles around the world.
H E the Minister said the partnership will be using the power of sports events and credible football messengers to inform communication based on behavioural insights to promote healthy lifestyles, including physical activity, healthy eating, and mental health and wellbeing.
The Minister concluded by explaining that evaluating the impact of public health interventions is one of the main challenges for public health. With this in mind, Qatar has launched a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey around physical activity, nutrition and mental health to establish a baseline, against which the impact of the health-promoting interventions on behaviours can be measured. This will in turn support the understanding of the public health legacy of these mega-sporting events and knowledge sharing with future hosts.
During the session, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained how the COVID-19 pandemic has been a powerful demonstration of the need to engage communities, understand their concerns and motivations and adapt strategies accordingly. Governments have had to persuade their populations to accept new behaviours and conditions, all in the context of rapidly evolving evidence.
Dr. Ghebreyesus said that as part of WHO’s transformation, a new unit for behavioural sciences has been created to integrate evidence about why people make the decisions they do, into WHO’s programmes and policy work.