The Ministry of Health (MOH) acknowledging its role in the development of leaders in the health system of Oman by launching a leadership project on the 1st of June 2016 on "Shaping the Future of Health Care Leaders in Oman" under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Saidi, Minister of Health in the presence of H.E. Dr. Darwish bin Saif Al-Muharbi, MOH Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs, H.E. Dr. Ali bin Taleb Al-Hinai, MOH Undersecretary for Planning Affairs and H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al-Hosni, MOH Undersecretary for Health Affairs.

The project involved a leadership research study, the results of which led to the birth of a training manual. The aim of the manual is to prepare, develop and empower leaders in all levels of health care within the Ministry of Health in line with the goals of the Health Vison 2050. During the launch, the phases of the study, its results and the contents of the training manual were presented by Dr. Majid Al Maqbali, Director General of Nursing Affairs, and this was followed by an introduction of an initiative called the 'Leadership and Decision Making Forum (LDM++)' by His Excellency Dr. Darwish al-Muharbi.

The Minister of Health commended the hard work and efforts of every member of the team and advised that the training manual should be reviewed and benchmarked internationally. His Excellency recommended that the manual should be disseminated to all governorates and GCC countries after acquiring relevant copyright. He also suggested that the study should be published in international journals in order for Oman to be recognized in the leadership domain. He commented that this was a remarkable achievement by the team and this would raise the country's profile at an international level.

It is worth to be noted that the study took 2-3 years for completion. The multidisciplinary team surveyed 50% of midlevel managers in the Ministry of Health (Section Heads, Directors and Deans) and interviewed the Director Generals in order to gather relevant data. The literature review included review of credible peer reviewed articles from indexed journals and top ranked leadership organizations as well as Islamic literature to reach to a leadership model that guided the study and this will now be used to assess, identify, develop and sustain leaders in Oman.