Opening Remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director at the Regional Health Alliance meeting on Investing in a Resilient Health Workforce in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

2 December 2025

Colleagues and partners,

It is a pleasure to welcome you once again. Today we come together with a dedicated focus on one of our three flagship initiatives: Investing in a Resilient Health Workforce.

This issue cuts across every mandate represented here, and today's meeting is an important opportunity to align RHA members around a shared regional agenda. It enables us to build on ongoing efforts and identify practical opportunities for joint action where our collective contribution can make the greatest impact.

The health workforce challenges in the Region are well recognized by Member States and partners. The Eastern Mediterranean hosts 10 per cent of the global population but faces 20 per cent of the projected global health workforce shortage by 2030. Workforce availability ranges from 8 to 108 health workers per 10,000 people, revealing sharp disparities in distribution, skills mix, and retention-particularly in rural, underserved, and conflict-affected settings.

These challenges are further compounded by chronic underinvestment, weak governance, fragmented education pathways, and the prolonged crises affecting nearly half our countries. Health workers continue to serve under extraordinary risk. In 2024, 61 per cent of all global attacks on health care occurred in this Region, directly impacting personnel and essential services.

To build a workforce capable of delivering in such contexts, we must explore innovative approaches, including mechanisms to better engage and leverage the contributions of our diaspora.

The need to invest in the health workforce is clear, and the economic case is strong. A one-year rise in life expectancy can drive 4 per cent economic growth, and every US$1 invested in health and job creation can yield up to US$9 in return.

Our Flagship Initiative provides a roadmap for action: investing more to close financial gaps; investing better by directing resources to high-impact areas such as primary care and essential public health functions, while scaling up and retaining the workforce; investing sustainably to prepare for demographic, technological, and epidemiological change; and working together through regional solidarity.

The establishment of a Regional Health Workforce Collaborative will provide a platform for structured exchange of experience, coordinated action, and strengthened capacity-building across the Region. It will bring Member States, partners, and institutions together, and I consider the Regional Health Alliance a key partner in this endeavour.

Our aim today is to agree on practical priorities and next steps to accelerate country-level implementation and strengthen the health workforce across our Region. I look forward to our discussions.