Here are extracts from an article by the WHO Director-General, and comments from me below. Read in full here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/who-academ...
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Our new institution will equip health and care workers, policymakers and the WHO workforce with the skills to deliver health for all
During my time as Minister of Health in Ethiopia, we wanted to transform the country’s health system, and I was looking for guidance on how to do it. It turned out the World Health Organization (WHO) had exactly what I was looking for – but it wasn’t WHO that told me about it; I only found it by Googling...
We recognised that while WHO has rich knowledge and expertise, we had no systematic or institutionalised way of sharing it.
So the idea for the WHO Academy was born: a new institution to equip health and care workers, policymakers and the WHO workforce with the skills and competencies they need to deliver health for all...
While the WHO Academy will not provide initial education for doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists or other professional disciplines, it will offer lifelong learning opportunities to help health and care workers stay abreast of the latest developments in their area...
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COMMENTS (NPW):
1. A news release on the WHO website notes:
We encourage healthcare professionals worldwide to fully utilise this resource to acquire updated knowledge of emerging medical evidence, new guidelines, essential products, and tools to address both current and future health challenges efficiently...
We affirm the importance of close, cross-sectoral collaboration and commitment to support initial and lifelong training of health workers and to promote the dissemination of reliable, scientific evidence-based public health knowledge globally.
Ref: https://www.who.int/news/item/17-12-2024-strengthening-the-training-of-h...
2. The Strategy document for the Academy goes into more detail. For example:
The WHO Academy’s vision is a world in which health and care workers, policy makers and WHO staff have the skills and competencies they need to achieve health for all.
The WHO Academy strives to enhance the lifelong learning capacity of the health workforce. By promoting competency-based learning, we ensure that learners achieve specific skills and knowledge
outcomes in practice-oriented situations and settings. The Academy extends learning resources to a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including health and care workers, policy makers, researchers, and WHO staff
The Academy’s priority is to reach learners in [LMIC] countries.
Providing access to courses rooted in current WHO guidance, the Academy will play a pivotal role in making WHO’s technical and normative guidance and policy recommendations accessible more rapidly.
Ref: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/who-academy/who-academy-st...
3. I have not had a chance to read everything in detail, but I have a few preliminary questions: 1. In what ways does the WHO Academy build on and complement existing efforts, internationally and at country level? 2. When the idea for the Academy first emerged, what mapping was done to identify gaps? What needs assessments were done? 3. To what extent is the proposed work of the Academy best led by WHO (for example, work that is directly based on WHO guidance and normative work? work that primarily supports WHO staff, WHO country offices, and ministries of health in LMICs?) and what might be best led by other stakeholders (for example, continuing professional development courses for different cadres of health worker). Indeed, might WHO resources best be used to support MoHs and other stakeholders to develop country-level training resources, rather than to deliver courses directly to end-users?
4. The WHO Academy's vision and the HIFA vision are aligned. The WHO Academy vision is another indication by WHO that they are moving towards an explicit commitment to champion universal access to reliable healthcare information, as recommended by the recent HIFA Global Consultation.
5. The Strategy aims to 'Build a global learning ecosystem... create a collaborative global health learning network... facilitate global partnerships and learning communities... develop online forums and communities for knowledge exchange.' *HIFA stands ready to support*
Thoughts?
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
