UNICEF Regional Director Ted Chaiban visits Oman Country Office

UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Ted Chaiban last week made his first visit to the UNICEF Oman office since assuming his position in October 2019. He was accompanied on the trip by Regional Chief of Operations Kambou Fofana.

As well as meeting key Government, private sector and civil society partners during the action-packed 6-day trip, Mr Chaiban also met with heads of other UN agencies and diplomatic missions in Oman.

As Oman is a high-income and peaceful country, UNICEF’s role here is very different from many other country offices in the region where staff are focused on providing on-the-ground assistance to children and families affected by conflict and crises. In Oman,  staff to a large extent focus on supporting the Government to develop and implement child-related policies and frameworks – for example, a new system to classify children with disabilities and a new model for integrated early childhood development.  

Of course, since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, UNICEF Oman has also extensively supported the Government’s pandemic response and recovery plan. Two important areas of work include a positive parenting communications campaign addressing the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on general health and wellbeing, and supporting the developing of guidelines for the safe re-opening of early child development centres and nursery schools.

To see first-hand how re-opening guidelines are being implemented, Mr Chaiban visited two nursery schools in Muscat. As well as engaging in discussions with staff from the Ministry of Social Development, which is in charge of the early learning sector, the regional director also spoke with nursery staff and children. The regional director also used the opportunity to stress the critical importance of ECD services during COVID-19 and beyond.  

After his stay in Muscat, the regional director headed to Salalah where he visited the Al Saadah health centre to understand more about mother and child health services in Oman. The UNICEF delegation congratulated the Ministry of Health team on the comprehensive and equitable distribution of health services – excellent achievements.

Before returning UNICEF’s regional headquarters in Jordan, Mr Chaiban sat down with a report from the Times of Oman for an interview that covered a wide range of topics. He used the opportunity to highlight theissues children now face as a result COVID-19, reflecting on how this is a formidable burden on countries of conflict such as Syria and Yemen.