There is no global health security without local and national health security; there is no health without the health workforce. These complementary observations ground the WHO and partner National Workforce Capacity for Essential Public Health Functions Roadmap. Recent G-20 discussions in Fiocruz reinforce high level attention and concern to focus health and the health workforce as key foundations of Health for All and global health security, amidst the broader impacts of health on economies, jobs, equity and peace.
The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) hosted the fourth Roadmap Steering Committee meeting from 22-23 October in Amman. The Committee focused on leveraging partners’ substantive networks to expand collaboration and identify resources and on supporting countries through robust science to measure the impact of investing in public health specialists and teams.
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with impacts of current events like situations of conflict and violence and a changing climate that is increasing the size and frequency of natural disasters, renewed recognition of the need to ensure national workforce capacity to promote health, treat illness and respond to emergencies. WHO and public health networks and institutions launched the Roadmap in 2022 and have developed a comprehensive collection of tools for countries to define and contextualize their essential public health functions; map and measure the occupations that deliver services; and strengthen competency based workforce education. Accompanied by a handbook with streamlined checklists, the collection is ready for regional, national and subnational use.
Early adopter countries from a range of socioeconomic contexts, along with the Eastern Mediterranean region, showed the relevance of the three action areas and how they have used the Roadmap tools to convene stakeholders, gather data, conduct policy reviews and identify challenges and opportunities to strengthen national capacity. Presentations from Azerbaijan, Australia, China, Colombia, India, Jordan, Kenya, Jordan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe illustrated the breadth of opportunity to use the Roadmap tools and engage partners. Representatives from the Global Health Emergency Corps discussed how a strong public health workforce is an important base for specialized teams that manage and respond to emergencies.
In Jordan, WHO has been striving to support strengthening essential public health functions and build capacity of public health professionals. This immensely contributes to a resilient health system able to recover from and adapt to all kinds of shocks,“ said Dr Jamela Al-Raiby, WHO Representative to Jordan.
“It’s time to use the evidence to align our efforts in a resource-constrained environment,” said Jim Campbell, WHO Health Workforce Director. “Our call to action now is to harness our respective networks accelerate global action to apply the tools, adapt to national context and conduct related policy dialogue activities.”
The Roadmap partners are present in over 120 countries, and, together with WHO, are ready to support ministries of health and their stakeholders to protect and invest together in the workforce needed to improve health and be more prepared for future emergencies.
About the Roadmap
The Roadmap stems from the 2021 Declaration of the G-20 Health Ministers, under the Italian G-20 presidency, which recognized the "importance of investing in and protecting an adequate and well-trained health workforce and community-based health services…to meet needs in the face of health risks and emergencies as well as insufficient human resource capacity at national and local levels."
The political and technical consensus generated by Italy’s G20 Presidency bolstered the momentum for WHO and the partnership of associations, institutions and schools of public health to align contributions for a multi-disciplinary workforce to undertake the essential public health functions, including emergency, preparedness and response efforts.