Hussain Rasheed is the Regional Advisor leading the work on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Climate Change at the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia. He was instrumental in the development of many technical products including tools and guidelines related to WASH and climate change in the South East Asia Region. During his tenure as State Minister for Health, Mr. Rasheed has had enormous influence in policy direction towards better public health initiatives including the primary healthcare approach in Maldives. Being a very strong public health advocate, his visionary leadership has resulted in the government raising tobacco taxation, as well as increasing taxes on fizzy and energy drinks in Maldives. He was instrumental in developing the 10-year health master plan 2016-2025 of Maldives. Mr Rasheed in his capacity as the Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Maldives has approved a Master in Public Health Course and has been continuously working to improve the capacity of healthcare professionals at the national level. With his guidance and leadership, Maldives is currently providing free healthcare to all citizens in the country through a government social health insurance scheme covering even the costs of organ transplants. All essential medicines are made available on all islands through state-owned pharmacies where medicine is made available for free. The National NCD Action Plan for the next five years was launched in 2016 and a nationwide NCD campaign to address the escalating non-communicable diseases in the country was designed and was launched in 2017.

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