Overview
In May 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partner organizations agreed a roadmap on national workforce capacity to implement the essential public health functions. This roadmap emphasizes three interconnected action areas: defining the essential public health functions, subfunctions and services tailored to the regional, national or subnational context; strengthening competency-based education oriented towards delivering the essential public health functions; and mapping and measuring the diversity of occupations involved in delivering these functions, along with projected needs. Detailed reference tools developed for each action area comprise a unique framework of methodologies, which can be adapted to reflect different contexts, needs and priorities.
This handbook is addressed to policy-makers, planners and educators, with the aim of supporting countries to assess their current public health workforce situation, needs and opportunities for progress across the three action areas. A list of questions is provided to guide the benchmarking process, which involves review, assessment, monitoring performance and contextualization, and how to integrate the findings with health workforce, health systems and health security policies and planning.
This handbook briefly describes the broader context and other processes relating to global health security, health systems and the health workforce, and presents an overview of the PHEWF roadmap, its added value and its three priority action areas:
- Essential public health functions and services,
- Competency-based education, and
- Mapping and measurement of occupations.
It also introduces the detailed technical reference documents developed for each action area. The document is addressed to policy-makers, planners and educators, with the aim of supporting countries to benchmark themselves and assess their current public health workforce situation, needs and opportunities for progress.
A unified list of 12 EPHFs
- Public health surveillance and monitoring: monitoring and surveillance of population health status, risks, protective and promotive factors, threats to health, and health system performance and service utilization.
- Public health emergency management: managing public health emergencies for international and national health security.
- Public health stewardship: establishing effective public health institutional structures, leadership, coordination, accountability, regulations and laws.
- Multisectoral planning, financing and management for public health: supporting effective and efficient health systems and multisectoral planning, financing and management for public health.
- Health protection: protecting populations against health threats (for example, environmental and occupational hazards, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, including mental health conditions, food insecurity, and chemical and radiation hazards).
- Disease prevention and early detection: prevention and early detection of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, including mental health conditions, and prevention of injuries.
- Health promotion: promoting health and well-being as well as actions to address the wider determinants of health and inequity.
- Community engagement and social participation: strengthening community engagement, participation and social mobilization for health and well-being.
- Public health workforce development: developing and maintaining an adequate and competent public health workforce.
- Health service quality and equity: improving appropriateness, quality and equity in provision of and access to health services.
- Public health research, evaluation and knowledge: advancing public health research and knowledge development.
- Access to and utilization of health products, supplies, equipment and technologies: promoting equitable access to and rational use of safe, effective and quality-assured health products, supplies, equipment and technologies.
Download: National Workforce Capacity for Essential Public Health Functions Collection
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