The Centre for Health Workforce Development at RAK Medical and Health Sciences University UAE Spearheading evidence and innovation for strengthening the health workforce

The Centre for Health Workforce Development (CHWD) at RAK Medical and Health Sciences University (RAKMHSU) in UAE is established as a centre of excellence to support health workforce strengthening agenda in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), other low-middle countries, and globally. The Centre is the first of its kind in UAE and the region incorporating a comprehensive approach to health workforce development.

The underlying premise of the CHWD is to nurture health workforce development as a science; and to generate evidence-based solutions to inform health workforce strengthening and development across policy and planning, education, regulation, employment, and management. The centre positions itself as a regional entity with global reach and aligns its role with the regional and global momentum to address health workforce challenges.

The CHWD aspires for a WHO collaborating centre status and subscribes to supporting the implementation of the framework for action for health workforce development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2017-2030) and the global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030.

The establishment of the CHWD came in response to the realisation of the critical role of the health workforce as a fundamental pillar and a pre-requisite for health systems functioning and population health and wellbeing. The Centre is a key milestone in the response to the daunting health workforce challenges in the EMR further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the regional dynamics and crises.

It is set to close the existing gap in knowledge and understanding, evidence, and capacity for strengthening the health workforce. The changes and complex dynamics underpinning health and healthcare including the quest for health equity, public health threats, climate change, and technological transformations hugely impact the health workforce sector. These considerations warrant a commensurate capacity and a response to address the resultant challenges.

The CHWD is envisaged to boost this response by catalysing technical capacity and innovations in support of a transformative agenda and a futuristic perspective to health workforce development matching up to evolving changes in the EMR and other contexts.