Strengthening primary health care through a family practice-based model of care is essential to achieving universal health coverage. However, WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region lacks a sufficient number of family physicians with the number of qualified practitioners falling well below the international standard of at least 3 family physicians per 10 000 population.

To overcome the shortage of family physicians the WHO Regional Office has developed a Regional Professional Diploma in Family Medicine that has been designed to provide general practitioners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to become family physicians able to deliver a comprehensive package of essential high-quality effective health care services to individuals and communities.

The curriculum of the Diploma has been developed by family physicians affiliated with renowned academic institutions in the Region, and is based on the competencies of family practitioners/general practitioners as defined by the World Organization of Family Doctors, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the College of Family Physicians of Canada for the specialty of family medicine.

The course is delivered by the Arab Board of Health Specializations and the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, in collaboration with WONCA’s regional office, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the United Nations Population Fund, the UN Refugee Agency and the United Nations Children's Fund.