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Health systems can only function with health workers; improving health service coverage and realizing the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is dependent on their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality.
WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 11.1 million health workers by 2030 (1), mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries. However, countries at all levels of socioeconomic development face, to varying degrees, difficulties in the education, employment, deployment, retention, and performance of their workforce.
The chronic under-investment in education and training of health workers in some countries and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs are contributing to continuous shortages. These are compounded by difficulties in deploying health workers to rural, remote and under-served areas. Moreover, the increasing international migration of health workers may exacerbate health workforce shortfalls, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries.
In some countries, challenges in universal access to health workers may also result from the lack of fiscal space to absorb the supply of health workers. As a result, some countries face the paradox of health worker unemployment co-existing with major unmet health workforce needs.
The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth found that investments in the health and social workforce can spur inclusive economic growth. The health workforce has also a vital role in building the resilience of communities and health systems and in emergency preparedness and response. Approximately 67% of the health workforce are women: investing in the health workforce is an opportunity to create decent employment opportunities, in particular for women and youth.
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Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health: Key areas for action and the way forward
The Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health was held from 3-5 April 2023 under the theme Protecting, safeguarding, and investing in the health...
Health and Care Workers: Protect.Invest.Together.
There is no health without health workers. To progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), health security and Sustainable Development...
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External publications
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Development of the World Health Organization Global competency and outcomes framework for the Essential...
Competency-based education has variable uptake in public health, despite calls for effective education-to-employment pathways. A WHO and partners’ Roadmap...
Strategies to support the mental health and well-being of health and care workforce: a rapid review of...
Countries worldwide face significant challenges in educating, employing, and retaining their health and care workforce, largely due to underinvestment...
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Behind the Paper: Global Progress on Health Workforce - Towards 2030
On this World Health Day, we celebrate progress made on the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 and we confront the reality that...
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The education and training of the public health workforce: working at the intersection of the WFPHA Global...
Recent years have seen the public health workforce deal with a range of chal-lenges and natural and man-made disasters. The Charter is based on a commonset...
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Is Australia’s current public health education fit-for-purpose? A reflection on past, present and future
In Australia, consistent with the global picture, the development of a multidisciplinary public health workforce and its education have evolved, mainly...
Competency-based education and training for Community Health Workers: a scoping review
Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a critical role in supporting the delivery of health servicesglobally. Competency-based learning programs can improve...
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Laws for health and care worker protection and rights: A study of 182 countries
The unprecedented and multi-faceted challenges health and care workers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the world’s health ministers to call...
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The global health and care worker compact: evidence base and policy considerations
During the COVID-19 pandemic, and recognising the sacrifice of health and care workers alongside discrimination, violence, poor working conditions and...
Applying a Primary Health Care Approach to Closing the Human Resource for Health Gaps for Immunization
This perspective is focused on the evidence on human resources for health (HRH) solutions for immunization, as a part of a primary health care (PHC) approach.....
The global health workforce stock and distribution in 2020 and 2030: a threat to equity and ‘universal’...
The 2016 Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 projected a global shortage of 18 million health workers by 2030. This article provides...
How economic implications of gender gaps in employment affect global health equity
While this theme issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization looks to uncover health inequities leading to unfair and avoidable differences...
Lessons learned from implementation of the Workload Indicator of Staffing Need (WISN) methodology: an...
Staffing of health services ought to consider the workload experienced to maximize efficiency. However, this is rarely the case, due to lack of an appropriate...
Events
Normative publications
State of the world's nursing report 2025
Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses...
Health and care workforce planning tools
A rapid review of health and care workforce planning tools is published in collaboration with the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre on Health...
The regulation of health practitioners is an essential strategy to minimize instances of patient harm in health services by enabling access to practitioners...
Achieving and sustaining national progress towards universal health coverage, health security and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals cannot...