Developing a Global Competency Framework for Universal Health Coverage

4 June 2018
Departmental update
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Join the WHO Education Hub: https://ezcollab.who.int/educationhub/
Blog by Siobhan FITZPATRICK

Tomorrow the World Health Organization is 70. In 1948, WHO was founded on the basis that health is a human right to be enjoyed by all people, not just the privileged few. Seventy years later, that conviction is as strong as ever. The 2017 Global Monitoring Report1 shows that more than half the world’s 7.3 billion people lack access to essential health services, and in 2009, accessing healthcare pushed almost 100 million people into poverty.

Without urgent action, WHO projections are for a shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, with the shortfall residing primarily in low and lower-middle income countries2 .

At its World Health Assembly next month, Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be calling on world leaders to commit to a work programme to reach ambitious global goals: 1 billion more people benefitting from universal health coverage (UHC); 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies; and 1 billion more people enjoying better health and wellbeing.

Accelerating progress towards health for all requires all people to have equitable access to health workers. Women make up 70% of the health workforce globally3 . Increasing the numbers of health workers brings more people - particularly more women and more youth - into the workplace. It helps keeps health promotion and healthcare community-focused. It ensures progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Alleviating Poverty (SDG1), Health (SDG3), Education (SDG4), Gender equality and women’s empowerment (SDG4), and Inclusive Economic Growth (SDG8). Scaling up health employment offers opportunities for health workers and their families, and the communities which they serve. Improving equity and access to health workers will strengthen health promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care – delivering health for all.

I believe in health for all, and I believe in the power of health education to help get there.

Efforts to scale up health professionals’ education must not only increase the quantity of health workers, but also address issues of quality and relevance in order to address population health needs. This is why a key priority of the WHO Education Hub is to support the scale up of health worker numbers through developing a Global Competency Framework for UHC to better align education with population health needs.

The Global Competency Framework for UHC will describe the competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours) for the health workforce to deliver on the goals of UHC. The Framework will:

  • Encompass multiple disciplines
  • Encompass multiple levels of learning
  • Apply to a subset of health workers who can be trained within 12-48 months
  • Build on and help align existing and fragmented set of competency frameworks
  • Align health education and training with escalating and changing population needs

Development of a Competency Framework for UHC is ambitious but hugely important. I am lucky to be working with so many committed individuals, networks, agencies and academic institutions through the Global Health Workforce Network (GHWN) Education Hub. The GHWN Education Hub community of practice is an important mechanism for inter-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement, as is required to advance implementation of the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health , the Report of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth and its five year action plan.

It would be amazing to count on others from across the world to join the WHO GHWN Education Hub, to feed in from your perspective, and to share your learning and experience with others who share our goals.

Please join the Education Hub and help us to develop the Competency Framework for Universal Health Coverage.

Useful resources:

1WHO and The World Bank (2017) Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2017 Global Monitoring Report Geneva: World Health Organization and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
2Limb, M. (2016) ‘World will lack 18 million health workers by 2030 without adequate investment, warns UN’, BMJ. 2016; 354: i5169-i5169.
3https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-recalibrating-investments-in-the-global-health-and-social-workforce-90683
4WHO (2016) Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030. Geneva: World Health Organization
5WHO (2016) Working for health and growth: investing in the health workforce. Report of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Geneva: World Health Organization