National workforce capacity for essential public health functions: A roadmap
Achieving and sustaining progress towards global health goals such as universal health coverage and health security requires a health and care workforce that can deliver the full range of essential public health functions, including emergency preparedness and response. As countries recover and turn attention to investments in health systems to meet diverse challenges, now is an opportune time to bolster the public health workforce, including those personnel charged with emergency preparedness and response functions. This roadmap is the result of joint efforts across leading public health and emergency response experts, organizations and associations.
Call for papers - Empowering the public health workforce
BMC Global and Public Health is calling for submissions to a Collection on advancing the recognition of the public health workforce. This Collection seeks to explore various dimensions of the public health workforce, including its roles, challenges, and contributions to global health outcomes. Find out more
Guest Editor: Gustavo Nigenda, PhD, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 30 July 2025
National Workforce Capacity for EPHFs Collection
National workforce capacity for essential public health functions: Operational handbook...
Defining essential public health functions and services to strengthen national workforce capacity
The purpose of this document is to support countries in contextualizing and implementing action area 1 of the roadmap and action plan to strengthen the...
Achieving and sustaining national progress towards universal health coverage, health security and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals cannot...
Essential public health functions: A guide to map and measure national workforce capacity
Monitoring the composition of the workforce that delivers the essential public health functions (EPHFs), including a specific function and focus on emergency...
External publications
The education and training of the public health workforce: working at the intersection of the WFPHA Global Charter and the WHO Roadmap
Is Australia’s current public health education fit-for-purpose? A reflection on past, present and future
Publications
Action plan: National workforce capacity to implement the essential public health...
National workforce capacity to implement the essential public health functions including...
Related publications
Public health and emergency workforce roadmap action areas
SC Member space
Application of the essential public health functions: an integrated and comprehensive approach to public health
Essential public health functions in Ireland
12 July 2023 - BMJ: Essential public health functions: the key to resilient health systems
24 October 2022 (IANPHI) - An Action Plan for Building Public Health and Emergency Preparedness and Response Capacity
Technical resources for Steering Committee members.
Contact us if you are a member and cannot access the space.
In the News
Event recordings & Testimonials
Roadmap partners
WHO and partners co-developed a roadmap to build national workforce capacity to deliver the EPHFs including emergency preparedness and response (EPR), along with partners such as the Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa (ASPHA), Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), the College of Public Health Medicine of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CPHM[CMSA]), the Faculty of Public Health - United Kingdom (FPH), TEPHINET and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The Public health and emergency workforce roadmap aims to develop a collective vision and shared understanding on the definition, classification and scope of work of the workforce performing EPHFs, as well as collaborative activities to build national workforce capacity through competency-based education. It lays out an ambitious agenda which requires sustained implementation to ensure that all countries across the world are able to identify their health system needs, develop competency-based education curricula for pre-service and in-service education of their public health workforce, and measure the quantity and quality of this workforce using a standardized measurement approach.
Endorsements
Administrators Training Center of the National Health Commission (China), African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA) (Belgium), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), (India), Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa (ASPHA), Ata Health (USA), Australian National University, Board of the Directors of the Italian Schools of Public Health, Center for International Knowledge on Development (CIKD) (China), Community Sustainable Health Solutions (Cameroon), Consortium of Universities for Global Health (USA), Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia (Australia), D Ameyo Stella Adadevoh (DRASA) Health Trust (Nigeria), Dayanand College (India), University of Jaffna, Department of Community and Family Medicine (Sri Lanka), Department of Health Central Visayas (Philippines), Department of International Health, CAPHRI, FHML, Maastricht University (Netherlands), EUPHA section Health Workforce Research (EUPHA-HWR) (United Kingdom), European Health Parliament (Belgium), European Public Health Association (EUPHA) (Belgium), European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), section public health medicine (Belgium), Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University (Thailand), German University Association Physician Assistant e.V. (Germany), Hamad Medical Corporation (Qatar), Health Education England (United Kingdom), Health Emergency Management Bureau, Dept. of Health (Philippines), Health Human Resources Development Center (HHRDC), the National Health Commission (China), Bedfordshire University (United Kingdom), Hubei University of Medicine (China), International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), Institution for Disasters, Emergency & Accidents (IDEA) (India), International Higher School of Medicine (Kyrgyzstan), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA), Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (USA), Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (United Arab Emirates), Maastricht University Care and Public Health Research Institute CAPHRI, Faculty of Health Medicine and Life sciences, (Netherlands), Medical Concourse of Anesthesia (Yemen), Ministry of Health, Osun State (Nigeria), Ministry of Health, University Brunei Darussalam (Kingdom of Brunei), National Association of Public Health Doctors (Portugal), National Institute of Health Islamabad (Pakistan), National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE) (USA), Nepal Open University , Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) (Nigeria), One Health Workforce - Next Generation Project (USA), Public Health Academy - Public Health Authority (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom), Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (Philippines), Saint Paul's Hospital, Millennium Medical College, School of Nursing (Ethiopia), Safe Mother and Childhood Research Initiative (SAMOCRI) (Nigeria), San Lazaro Hospital (Philippines), School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Ghana, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, School of Public Health, North China, of Science and Technology, School of Public Health, Patan Academy of Health Sciences (Nepal), School of Public Health, University of Cape Town (South Africa), SD Gupta School of Public Health, IIHMR University (India), Shaheed Nirmal Mahto Medical College and Hospital (India), St Lucia Nurses Association, Stanford University (USA), The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET), The Indonesian Public Health Association (IPHA), TruMerit (USA), Universitas Gadjah Mada, Public Health and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine (Indonesia), Universitatea de Medicina Si Farmacie "Carol Davila", Faculty of Medicine (Romania), University of California, Irvine (USA), University of Sydney, School of Public Health (Australia), Univesity of Hyogo, Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community (Japan), Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University (China), World Federation of Public Health Associations , Yalla Nabadir Organization (YNO) (Sudan), Zhejiang University (China), Zimbabwe Public Health Institute, ,
Related health topics