Scope of public health workforce: an exploratory analysis on World Health Organization policy and the literature

Abstract

The public health workforce is a key component of public health system. To articulate the scope of public health workforce, we reviewed the relevant World Health Organization (WHO) guidance and peer-reviewed journal articles on this subject. Specifically, we assessed and compared the relevant publications produced by WHO Headquarters and Regional Offices along with other literature on this issue. Our focus was on the “occupation, workplace setting, and employer of public health workforce”. It is noteworthy that WHO has adopted a conceptual framework with an inclusive scope of the public health workforce, while setting out a 5-year vision to strengthen capacity across all WHO Member States for a multidisciplinary workforce to deliver the essential public health functions, including emergency preparedness and response. The importance of public health workforce in global and national responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is recognized. We also observed that there were diverse understandings of the scope of public health workforce worldwide, including macro-, meso‑ and micro-level perspectives. In the post-COVID-19 era, we suggest that policy-makers and practitioners at the national, regional and global level adopt a coordinated approach to expand and strengthen the national workforce as guided by the WHO towards the health-related targets of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as health security and Universal Health Coverage.