The World Health Organisation has just launched a suite of papers from its two-year programme “Building the national workforce for essential public health functions (EPHFs): A Roadmap for aligning WHO and partner contributions. The introductory web page can be found here.

ASPHER members have played an active part in the development of these landmark papers. Jose-Maria Martin Moreno from Valencia first completed a review of Essential Public Health functions for WHO in late 2018. ASPHER’s online Deans’ Retreat in September 2021 was a key point bringing together global public health leads to discuss workforce capacity building. The platform brought together the then President of ASPHER John Middleton and ASPHER young professional Naomi Nathan, with Jim Campbell, WHO Health Workforce lead, Laura Magana of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), Washington DC, and current President of the Global Network for Academic Public Health (GNAPH), Silvio Brusaferro – President of the Italian National Health Institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanita?, ISS) and the G20 Health Working Group and Walter Ricciardi, then President of the World Federation of Public Health Associations.

John Middleton attended the first steering group meeting in Geneva in October 2022 for the first ‘Roadmap’ report launched two years ago, and subsequently in London in February 2023. Kasia Czabanowska, Maastricht, and Genevieve Chene, Bordeaux have also been active in the steering group and as members of the Technical Advisory Group for the Global competency and outcomes framework for the essential public health functions. 

The collection of WHO health workforce reports is designed to support countries wishing to develop their public health workforce: it is made up of the: 

• National workforce capacity for essential public health functions: Operational handbook for country-led contextualization and implementation;
• Defining essential public health functions and services to strengthen national workforce capacity;
• Global competency and outcomes framework for the essential public health functions; and
• National workforce capacity for essential public health functions: operational handbook for country-led con- textualization and implementation.

The WHO reports are designed with countries, governments, ministries of health and health systems in mind. ASPHER will be studying these reports in great depth. We will be seeking to ensure they complement other work we have been involved in over many years including these competency and professionalization frameworks, which apply to individual public health practitioner’s and public health systems and services. Three recent reports which inform ASPHER practice are:

WHO-ASPHER Competency Framework for the Public Health Workforce in the European Region. Here

World Health Organization European Office and Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) Roadmap to professionalizing the public health workforce in the European Region 2022. Here

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Core competencies in applied infectious disease epidemiology in Europe. Here 

The ongoing work of ASPHER includes completing the Core Curriculum programme review, so that we can make recommendations to schools on how and what can be taught to our students at different levels. The future of public health teaching and practice is of vital importance to the health of future generations, people and planet.

We hope ASPHER members will be keen to study these reports and consider how they may be of value in their own countries and schools. 

John Middleton, Professor of Public Health, Wolverhampton and Chester Universities; Past President ASPHER johnmiddleton@phonecoop.coop

May 28^th 2024