WHO South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Workforce Strategy 2025–2030
Overview
The World Health organization (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Workforce (HEW) Strategy 2025–2030 is a regional response to the urgent need for a structured, scalable and interoperable health emergency workforce. Rooted in the WHO Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPR) Framework and aligned with the Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC), the strategy aims to strengthen national and regional capacities to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. The South-East Asia Region is among the most disaster-prone in the world, facing frequent natural disasters, disease outbreaks and complex humanitarian emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical gaps in surge capacity, coordination and leadership across the Region. This strategy builds on those lessons and global recommendations towards establishing a resilient and connected emergency workforce ecosystem.
The vision of the strategy is to establish a coordinated, resilient and responsive health emergency workforce in the WHO South-East Asia Region that can effectively prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. It is guided by four core principles: sovereignty, equity, solidarity and transparency. The strategy emphasizes that Member States retain ownership of their national health emergency workforce, while committing to equitable access to resources, regional solidarity and timely information sharing.
The strategy is structured around three interlinked strategic objectives. The first is to foster connected leadership by developing a trusted network of national health emergency leaders who can coordinate across sectors and borders. The second objective focuses on harmonizing response efforts through interoperable surge teams and integrated coordination platforms. The third emphasizes on building robust operational capacities by ensuring a well-trained multidisciplinary workforce is established and continuously supported by quality standards and institutional integration.
To achieve these objectives, this strategy proposes several approaches, including institutionalizing leadership roles, developing national surge plans, integrating digital tools, embedding emergency competencies into existing health systems, and establishing national training hubs and accreditation systems. It aligns with global frameworks such as the HEPR Framework and the GHEC, as well as the proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement. At the regional level, it contributes to the South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience and the Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework.
The HEW Strategy 2025–2030 is an aspirational step towards a more connected, capable and equitable health emergency workforce in the South-East Asia Region. It operationalizes global and regional commitments, ensuring that countries are better prepared to respond to current and future health threats.
