Delegates at the seventy-fourth session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific today endorsed an action framework on the strategic use of communication for health impact, a framework to strengthen and transform the health workforce of the Region, and a strategy to enable health innovation.
Communicating for health impact
Communication, when used strategically, can be a powerful tool to address growing and complex health challenges. It can change people’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, as well as empower them to make choices that help to protect and improve health. In the digital age, communication is more important than ever, but using communication strategically requires expertise, skills and resources.
To leverage the full power of strategic communication to improve health and well-being, and to help Member States to achieve their public health goals, WHO in the Western Pacific Region has developed the Communication for Health (C4H) approach. C4H refers to a set of principles and practices to ensure communication interventions are strategic, evidence-based, and designed to inform and change attitudes and behaviours.
To strengthen the application of the approach and support the achievement of defined public health outcomes, health ministers and senior officials from countries and areas across the Region endorsed today the Regional Action Framework on Communication for Health: A vision for using communication to improve public health in the Western Pacific Region. The Framework guides Member States on the use of strategic communication to improve knowledge and change attitudes and behaviours to contribute to improved health outcomes. WHO will provide technical support to Member States for implementation of the Framework through building capacity, developing tools and guidance, and enabling collaboration among stakeholders.
Shaping a health workforce for the future
There can be no health system without a well-performing health workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed pre-existing vulnerabilities in health systems and chronic underinvestment in the health workforce – as facilities faced health worker shortages, occupational safety was compromised, and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety rose.
Despite progress in strengthening the workforce, there continues to be critical gaps between what is needed and what is available in terms of the number, distribution, quality and protection of health workers. A motivated and competent health workforce – with the right number of workers in the right places with the right mix of skills – is central to providing people-centred integrated care and achieving health for all.
The Regional Framework to Shape a Health Workforce for the Future of the Western Pacific, endorsed today by the Regional Committee, aims to transform and strengthen the health workforce to be fit for the future. This includes:
- aligning human resources with primary health-care-oriented health systems so patients have more continuity of care;
- increasing human resources stewardship to increase funding to protect and support health workers while addressing health worker migration;
- institutional life-long learning and reskilling of the health workforce;
- clarifying the role of the private sector in health systems and enabling a larger contribution to public policy goals; and
- managing the distribution and the productivity of the health workforce for the public good.
WHO will continue to advocate sustained and scaled-up investments in the health workforce. In addition, WHO will work closely with countries and areas in the Western Pacific, as well as partners and academia, to generate strong evidence to inform policy-making and establish regional learning platforms to accelerate the exchange of information and cross-country learning on human resources for health.
Leveraging innovations to accelerate health impact and shape well-being
Much of the progress in public health in the Region has been driven by innovation. COVID-19 has made health innovation more pervasive, involving a broader spectrum of stakeholders and approaches than ever before.
Despite the abundance and diversity of health innovations, their impact on addressing health challenges and promoting population health and equity has often been limited. This limitation stems from the absence of enabling ecosystems.
Successful health innovation is a complex process that hinges on various factors. It requires a supportive policy environment, driven by collective intelligence, rooted in public health values and direction. To effectively implement and scale up health innovation for impact, the public sector’s leadership and the creation of systemic enablers are crucial.
The Region’s health leaders today endorsed the Regional Health Innovation Strategy for the Western Pacific. The Strategy aims to support governments in becoming the key driver for health innovation, enhancing the public sector’s capacity to manage innovation and cultivating enabling ecosystems in which public health values are integrated.
WHO will continue advocating for commitments and investments that promote health innovation ecosystems. Furthermore, WHO will collaborate closely with Member States, public sector innovation agencies, academia and non-State innovation actors to collectively strengthen governments' capacity to guide and facilitate health innovation. It will also establish a regional ecosystem to contribute to the innovation process and share insights.
Notes to editors:
A livestream of the Regional Committee proceedings, official documents, fact sheets, and videos on the issues to be addressed this week can be accessed here. Images are available for download via our multimedia library.
For updates, follow @WHOWPRO on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube and the hashtag #RCM74.
Working with 194 Member States across six regions, WHO is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for public health. Each WHO region has its regional committee – a governing body composed of ministers of health and senior officials from the region’s Member States. Each regional committee meets annually to agree on health actions and chart priorities for WHO’s work.
The WHO Western Pacific Region is home to more than 1.9 billion people across 37 countries and areas in Asia and the Pacific: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, France (which has responsibility for French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna), Hong Kong SAR (China), Japan, Kiribati, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Macao SAR (China), Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (which has responsibility for Pitcairn Islands), the United States of America (which has responsibility for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam), Vanuatu and Viet Nam.