The last in this year's Working for Health 2030 webinar series co-hosted by WHO and NHS England, this seminar examines
Health systems are navigating rapid transformation — driven by ageing populations, emerging health threats, evolving models of care, and technological advancements. These shifts bring both challenges and opportunities, especially in the face of rising service pressures and constrained resources.
By 2030, WHO projects a shortfall of 11.1 million health workers globally, with the greatest impact in low- and middle-income countries. These shortages are compounded by challenging working conditions and high-stress environments, which increases the risk of burnout and can exclude or disincentivise the health workforce, as highlighted in our first seminar of the series.
Building on these insights — this seminar will explore how health systems and workforce optimisation policies can be redesigned and augmented through workforce capability and technology to enable the recruitment, utilisation, retention, and progression of a competent, digitally literate, and optimised workforce.
We’ll reflect on key challenges and opportunities by exploring the following questions:
- What policy, governance and institutional levers are most effective for delivering localised workforce innovation and improved workforce capability?
- How can countries empower subnational stakeholders to engage in planning and decision-making in ways that keep people, not just systems, at the centre?
- What role can technology, innovation, and digital literacy play in localised workforce optimisation?
- How can policy action for workforce capability and optimisation be leveraged to address national primary health care priorities and inequalities?
The seminar will be held on Zoom. Register for the seminar.
Meet our Panel
- Paul Marsden, Senior Workforce Specialist and Working for Health Team Lead, WHO, Seminar Chair
- Jim Campbell, Director, Health Workforce, WHO
- Caline Mattar, Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Washington University
- Åsa Olsson, Subject Specialist on Human Resources for Health, Socialstyrelse
- Adeeb Naasan, Data & Digital Lead, The Scottish Government
- Phoebe Spurr, Deputy Head of International Development and Global Health Development Lead, The Scottish Government
Additional information: NHS England