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Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in Controlling COVID-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

Mohammad Mohseni
Affiliation:
Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Saber Azami-Aghdash
Affiliation:
Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Health Management and Safety Promotion Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Haleh Mousavi Isfahani
Affiliation:
School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Ahmad Moosavi
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Community Medicine, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran
Mozhgan Fardid*
Affiliation:
Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
*
Corresponding author: Mozhgan Fardid, Email: mfardid@gmail.com
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Abstract

Type
Letter to the Editor
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. The virus spreads mainly through saliva droplets or nasal discharge when the infected person coughs or sneezes. 1 Due to the high prevalence rate of COVID-19 and its associated problems, health-care systems are usually unable to manage and control it by themselves. Reference Doshmangir, Mahbub Ahari and Qolipour2 Many health-care systems around the world have struggled to manage and control the outbreak without outside assistance. In response, numerous countries, such as Iran, have made efforts to use the capabilities and capacities of other sectors, such as the military, private sector, and public volunteer organizations, the most important of which are nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Reference Qian, Ren and Wang3 NGOs are an essential element of modern governments’ management to improve social, political, and developmental activities. They play several important roles in the process of development in most countries Reference Saber, Eftekhar and Taghdisi4 and global health governance. NGO activities can be local, national, or international. NGOs have contributed to the development of communities around the world and are important partners of many governments, while simultaneously remaining independent from governments. Reference Delisle, Roberts and Munro5

The Islamic Republic of Iran is also 1 of the countries where COVID-19 has become widespread and many people have died of it (deaths: 58,336 as of February 6, 2021). In Iran, as in other countries, NGOs have contributed to the health system in disease control since the beginning of the outbreak. There are almost 3000 NGOs involved in controlling COVID-19 in Iran. The most important activities of NGOs in Iran included: providing education and training to people, controlling people’s stress and psychological pressures, providing and distributing health-care materials, disinfecting cities and villages, fundraising for the health system, patient screening, cooperation for food supply, preparing and distributing of essential materials and goods needed by the people, advocating and communicating with national and international officials as the role of NGOs in controlling COVID-19, and the formation of National Service Network (consisting of approximately 2000 specialized and nonspecialized NGOs to help control the pandemic).

There are several high impact recommendations for improving the ability of NGOs to assist health-care systems with COVID-19 and future pandemic response, including increasing financial and medical equipment support, improving training across all responding organizations for better alignment and integration, and publicly requesting support for health-care systems that are particularly fragile. Other actions that states should take include improving registration systems for NGOs, sharing communication systems with all responders for effective coordination, and increasing collaboration between all responders to enhance the effectiveness of health-care system response.

References

World Health Organization. Coronavirus [cited February 6, 2021]. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1. Accessed March 18, 2021.Google Scholar
Doshmangir, L, Mahbub Ahari, A, Qolipour, K, et al. East Asia’s strategies for effective response to COVID-19: lessons learned for Iran. Q J Manage Strateg Health Syst. 2020;4(4):370373.Google Scholar
Qian, X, Ren, R, Wang, Y, et al. Fighting against the common enemy of COVID-19: a practice of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Infect Dis Poverty. 2020;9(1):16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saber, M, Eftekhar, H, Taghdisi, MH, et al. Development and preliminary validation of non-governmental organization practice checklist. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2018;20(2):e42969.Google Scholar
Delisle, H, Roberts, JH, Munro, M, et al. The role of NGOs in global health research for development. Health Res Policy Syst. 2005;3(1):3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed