As Deputy Secretary General for the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, Rafiq Husseini has served as a leader in providing opportunities to others. Earning his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Loughborough University in 1978, Husseini has spent much of his career promoting public health and building medical infrastructure in Palestine. He also possesses a Master’s degree in Health Management from City University London.

After completing his early training, Rafiq Husseini co-founded Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charitable organization based in the United Kingdom that has provided health and medical care to Palestinians affected by conflict for 25 years. In 1994, Husseini left his role as CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians to become Director General of the Palestine Council of Health in Jerusalem, where he coordinated the transfer of medical services in the West Bank and Gaza from the Israeli government to the Palestinian Authority pursuant to the Oslo accord of 1993.

In 1995, Rafiq Husseini became the founding General Manager for Arabcare Medical Service, PLC, one of Palestine’s leading private health care providers. With a modern 22-bed hospital in Ramallah and three satellite diagnostic centers, Arabcare was visited by over 100,000 patients a year and generated in excess of $2.5 million in revenue only two years after it began. From 1999 to 2003, Hussein broadened his focus to Palestinians’ well-being. As Director General and Director of Operations of the internationally known Welfare Association, then as the charity’s Deputy Director General for Development and Administration, Husseini helped to increase annual revenues from $26 million in 2002 to $37 million in 2004. In recognition of his decades-long commitment to Palestinian development, Rafiq Husseini was then asked to serve as Chief of Staff to Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, in 2005. As Chief of Staff to the President, Husseini managed the Office of the President in all areas of the West Bank and Gaza controlled by the PNA.