Countries in the WHO’s South-East Asia Region have made progress in strengthening their health workforce, but challenges remain in achieving equitable access to care. According to the World Health Organization, the region committed in 2014 to a Decade of Strengthening Human Resources for Health from 2015 to 2024, aiming to address long-standing shortages and improve training, recruitment, and retention of health workers. This initiative was reinforced by the Global Health Workforce Strategy and reviewed in 2016, with follow-up assessments conducted every two years. The availability of doctors, nurses, and midwives in the South-East Asia Region has increased by 21% since the decade began in 2014, reflecting measurable gains in health workforce density. However, disparities persist across countries and between urban and rural areas, particularly in the distribution of skilled health professionals. A 2006 World Health Report cited in WHO documents indicated that six out of eleven countries in the region faced a human resources for health crisis at that time, underscoring the depth of the challenge. Efforts to strengthen the workforce have focused on improving accreditation, regulation, curriculum updates, professional development, and collaboration among health professions. Technological advances and task shifting are being leveraged to optimize multidisciplinary teams, especially in the context of rising noncommunicable disease burdens. By 2019, noncommunicable diseases accounted for approximately 40 million deaths globally, with the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the necessitate for a workforce equipped to manage chronic conditions. WHO South-East Asia Region countries have reported progress in expanding training programs and enhancing the quality of health workforce education. These efforts are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, which call for substantial increases in the recruitment, development, training, and retention of health workers in developing countries, particularly in least developed nations and small island developing states. Ongoing monitoring through the Global Health Observatory and national health workforce accounts continues to support evidence-based policy decisions. Although the formal decade-long initiative concludes in 2024, sustaining gains will require continued investment in health workforce planning, education, and retention strategies to meet evolving health needs across the region.
30