Plans to develop FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN centres for excellence for pharmacy education across the world have been bolstered by a renewed agreement between FIP and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) concerning the UNITWIN Network on Global Pharmacy Education Development, FIP announced today.

In 2010, FIP and UNESCO launched the network, together with University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy. This was the first in the field of higher education for any health profession and led to the development of the FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN Centre for Excellence in Africa. In 2021, building on a decade of progress in sub-Saharan Africa, FIP launched a FIP UNITWIN pathfinder toolkit to support the global expansion of the UNITWIN programme and provide step-wise guidance to academic institutions to establish UNITWIN cooperation networks in regions across the world.

“We are extremely proud that this partnership has been renewed. It supports us in continuing our valuable work to help pharmaceutical education institutions deliver a pharmaceutical workforce able to meet needs,” said FIP president Dominique Jordan. “According to our priority assessment of the roadmaps, we plan to establish our next regional centres for excellence in the South-East Asian region,” Mr Jordan added. FIP plans to have centres of excellence in each world region by 2024.