WHO EMRO | A strategic framework for health workforce development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Universal health coverage – defined as all people being able to use needed health services with sufficient quality to be effective without financial hardship (1) – is a shared vision of health system development for Member States in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), and a major element of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, which came into force on 1 January 2016 (2). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 3 (3), highlights the need for a substantial increase in the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries. Well planned and concerted efforts are required to ensure availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health workforce. In response to this, the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly also asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop the “Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030”, which was adopted by the Health Assembly in May 2016 (4).