This chapter focuses on understanding the need and challenges to build and sustain public health capacity within GCC countries in order to meet the new demands for a rapidly changing regional health landscape. In the last four decades, the GCC states have seen rapid development along with increase in life expectancy, decrease in maternal and infant mortality, and overall improvements in the quality of life of their citizens. This has been done, in part by rapid urbanization, creation of new and state-of-the-art hospitals and substantial improvement in water sanitation.

The creation of medical “cities” that feature state-of-the art equipment in hospitals as well as medical staff, some trained at leading world institutions, has raised the level of quality in hospital care within the region. That said, with changes in lifestyle and urbanization, new challenges associated with high impact chronic diseases, in particular diabetes, obesity, cancer, cardiovascular ailments, and mental health issues have posed new and complex problems for the GCC states that require rethinking the existing public health systems in place.

The incidence of some of these diseases in the GCC, particularly diabetes and cancer, is among the highest in the world. Consequently, addressing public health challenges requires not only change in policies but also the creation of new educational models to train the workforce and create domestic research and technical capacity to meet these new challenges.

Many GCC states have taken creative approaches to educate their local workforce. These include university-industry collaboration in biotech, international initiatives focused on applying innovation to health, and accelerating the growth of local public health education programs through partnerships with western universities. The countries that comprise the GCC each face their unique public health hurdles but also share common challenges in improving health outcomes for their citizens and non-citizens alike. These recent challenges have been the catalyst for many GCC nations to begin investing in the future of public health, particularly through local higher education institutions.

Health and Healthcare Financing: Meeting the Needs for A Growing Population

It is important to understand the landscape of public health in the region. Over the last fifty years, there has been exponential regional economic growth. This growth has drawn people from all over the world to this region, in search for work opportunities at every employment level. For example, in 2011, expatriates constituted 87 per cent of the population in Qatar and 84 per cent of the population in the UAE.