WHO/Europe is bringing together policy-makers, technical experts and representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine on 13–15 October 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark, to strengthen how countries plan for their health workforce and use evidence to anticipate future needs.
The workshop is part of the European Union-funded Health Resilience in the Eastern Partnership project – a multiyear collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST) – and builds on work commenced at the WHO/Europe Executive Course in Human Resources for Health Leadership and Management in November 2025.
Since then, countries have engaged a broader range of national stakeholders to identify and prioritize the factors needed to make their workforce planning systems sustainable – recognizing that strong health systems depend on having the right health workers with the right skills in the right places. This requires not only good workforce data, but also the institutions, expertise, governance and political commitment needed to translate that information into effective workforce policies. Yet while countries have strengthened their technical capacity, progress can remain vulnerable when it depends on short-term projects, individual expertise or external funding.
From evidence to country action
Over 3 days, country teams will examine their findings with international experts and peers, identify priorities for strengthening their national systems and translate them into practical action plans. The work will consider 4 interconnected areas:
- workforce data and models
- the capacity of planners
- health workforce governance
- the political and wider contextual conditions needed to sustain change.
Through interactive country sessions and a world café format, participants will move from interpreting national priorities to designing and refining interventions, with an emphasis on country ownership and experts supporting teams as facilitators and advisers.
By the end of the workshop, each country is expected to have a draft action plan for the next 2–3 years, identifying priority interventions, time frames, lead institutions, key partners and resource implications. Countries will also identify immediate priorities and actions towards 2028.
About the Health Resilience in the Eastern Partnership project
The DG ENEST-funded project focuses on 2 core priorities:
- strengthening health workforce capacities and resilience; and
- enhancing mental health systems, including governance, capacity-building and skills development for mental health professionals, as well as collaboration with the arts and culture sectors.