About us
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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Latest technical briefs
Our Team
All->Dr Agya Mahat
Technical Officer, Policy, Norms and Standards
Lennah Etyang
Consultant
Our work
News
External publications
Determining staffing standards for primary care services using workload indicators of staffing needs...
Health services cannot be delivered without an adequate, competent health workforce. Evidence suggests a direct relationship between density of health...
Workload assessment of medical doctors at primary health care centers in the Duhok governorate
A shortage in human resources, particularly physicians, has become a challenge confronting health authorities in the Duhok governorate, as these resources...
Assessing the staffing needs for primary health care centers in Cross River State, Nigeria: a workload...
A major human resources for health challenge for Nigeria is ensuring the availability and retention of adequate competent health workers in the right mix...
Global experiences in health workforce policy, planning and management using the Workload Indicators...
Countries that have been planning for health workforce using simple population ratios and health worker density benchmarks, realize that these traditional...
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Design, delivery and effectiveness of health practitioner regulation systems: an integrative review
Health practitioner regulation (HPR) systems are increasingly recognized as playing an important role in supporting health workforce availability, accessibility,...
Health practitioner regulation and national health goals
The role of health practitioner regulation in ensuring patient safety is well recognized. Less recognized is the role of regulation in addressing broader...
Essential public health functions: the key to resilient health systems
It has become increasingly important that we develop greater global consensus on the definition and scope of public health services if system strengthening...
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...
Investing in human resources for health in French-speaking Africa: the contribution of the Muskoka project
This introduction presents the articles included in this special issue on “investing in human resources for health in French-speaking Africa”. It starts...
A technical framework for costing health workforce retention schemes in remote and rural areas
Increasing the availability of health workers in remote and rural areas through improved health workforce recruitment and retention is crucial to population...
Rural Urban Imbalance of Health Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa
In most, if not all, countries of Sub-Saharan Africa the geographic distribution of health workers favors urban over rural areas, and labor economics theory...
The Road to Universal Health Coverage
Like many ambitious global goals, universal health coverage (UHC) remains an aspiration for many countries. The World Health Organization estimates that...
Events
Normative publications
This report provides a snapshot of the health workforce (HWF) in the African Region for the decade 2013–2022. To provide a thorough understanding...
Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter
This ground-breaking Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter sets out a clear vision to reduce and eliminate Africa's 6.1 million workforce gap and...
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International migration and mobility of health workers has increased in volume and complexity in recent decades. If not adequately managed, migration of...
The Fair Share report outlines how gender-equitable investments in health and care work can help fully recognize the value of health and care work, to...
Additional publications
Accelerating Global Health: Pathways to Health Equity for the G20
Health workforce terminology: multilingual
Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health: Key areas for action and the way forward
Civil society action brief: Enhancing domestic and international financing for investments in the health and care workforce
Civil society action brief: Leveraging intersectoral governance to improve education, employment and retention of health and care workers
Civil society action brief: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic: recruiting, retaining and supporting health and care workers
Health topics
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