People with intellectual disabilities must be provided for by national health infrastructure, members of the Special Olympics Healthy Athlete programme have highlighted.
In the MENA region, “health services need to be available ... because what we have found is that people with intellectual disabilities, many times, they have been excluded from national services,” said Javier Vasquez, senior director of the Special Olympics Global Health Programs.
“We are taking advantage of 20 years of Healthy Athletes, where we have collected significant information about the health problems of people with intellectual disabilities in eight different disciplines, and now we are making the case before international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation ... that people with intellectual disabilities have to be visible in their health information systems,” he said.
The Healthy Athletes programme offers free health screenings to athletes at the Special Olympic Games. The committee is teaming up with UAE health authorities to ensure that appropriate services are provided to people with intellectual disabilities.
Almost all the athletes they see have oral health problems, and a majority have vision and hearing problems. Officials are concerned over the fate of many athletes after they return to their home countries.
Doctors carrying out screenings this year detected a previously unknown issue with an Egyptian athlete’s sight. The girl, who was suffering from a build-up of pressure behind her eyes, was at risk of losing her vision if the problem was not treated.
Among Special Olympics athletes seen in the MENA Region, 23 per cent present with mouth pain, 62 per cent have untreated tooth decay, 36 per cent are missing teeth, 63 per cent have signs of gingivitis and 25 per cent need urgent attention from a dentist.
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Additionally, 38 per cent of Special Olympics athletes in the MENA Region have never had an eye exam, 9 per cent have permanent hearing loss and 75 per cent have balance problems.
Dainius Puras, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, said that by law in most countries people with disabilities have the right to health services and are not discriminated against, but that is not the reality.
An issue of great concern, he said, is the lowered life expectancy of those with intellectual disabilities, but the Special Olympics is a great “path” to helping people.
Medical professionals carried out almost 3,000 screenings for a range of health conditions as part of the Healthy Athletes programme at the Abu Dhabi Games this week. A total of 913 were treated for dental, vision and podiatry-related issues.
Mr Vasquez said: "Some athletes in these clinics at the Healthy Athlete programme have access to care that would not be available for them in their own countries. That should not be the case. We aren’t a health authority, but we have to do it."
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
