The pandemic and a series of natural and man-made disasters have highlighted an international deficit of appropriately and adequately trained staff. Consequently, in 2022 the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a key project: Building the Public Health and Emergency Workforce Roadmap (henceforth the Roadmap) [5]. During 2022 and 2023, a steering committee of international public health experts met three times to advice on the Roadmap process [6]. The Roadmap Action Plan [7] divided the work into three key workstreams: 1—defining the Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs), sub-functions and services; 2—competency-based education for the public health workforce; and 3—mapping and measurement of the occupations.

The two PETWG co-chairs represent the WFPHA on the Roadmap steering committee, co-chairing the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) leading the competency-based education workstream that was responsible for developing the Global competency and outcomes framework for the essential public health functions.

Each Roadmap workstream has developed a set of tools for use by public health departments and education institutions worldwide, all of which are available on the Roadmap website [6]. The first workstream revisited the original EPHFs [8], consulting with a broad group of practitioners, and redesigned a set of 12 functions, each of which has been expanded into a set of sub-functions [9]. These functions were used to underpin the other two workstreams.

In tandem, the competency-based education WHO TAG commissioned a systematic review of relevant competency sets to underpin evidence for public health knowledge and practice. 124 documents were analysed and mapped against the revised EPHFs and organized into two broad areas of competence for delivering the EPHFs, covering eleven domains: six addressing competencies for individual workers, and five outlining specific practice activities and tasks undertaken by the broad public health and emergency workforce (Table 1).

The competency domains for individuals include 20 sub-competencies, which itemize the professional behaviours expected to deliver the EPHFs. The practice activities domains are deconstructed into a further 40 practice activities. Each domain is accompanied by a set of curricula guides, indicating which activities are appropriate for various components of the workforce. Furthermore, the framework provides resources for a range of teaching programmes from in-house professional development courses to full degrees.

Mapping and measuring the public health workforce is complex for several reasons. The public health workforce (Fig. 1) consists of core workers whose practice concentrates entirely on delivery of the EPHFs, health and care workers (largely service providers) who deliver some EPHFs as a part of their work, and other workers who do not consider themselves as part of the public health workforce but whose work is critical to the health of the public [6]. Complicating this landscape, the work carried out can be performed by differently trained people in different settings, and job titles attached to various occupations are not consistent across the globe. The Roadmap documents therefore focus on tasks rather than job titles and status, resulting in a non-prescriptive set of tools for international application.

Composition of the workforce which delivers the EPHFs [used with permission] [6]

The suite of Roadmap tools can be used to benchmark local and national progress in strengthening public health practice and teaching programme design. These resources are designed to secure the public health workforce for many years into the future. However, to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, the goal for the next phase of Roadmap project is to trial part or all the toolkits in 100 countries. Locally they can be used to benchmark the ways in which the EPHFs are delivered, map the structure of the public health workforce and screen public health teaching programmes for appropriate content and design.

For the later of these goals, the WFPHA PET is taking a lead role, co-chairing a further sub-group of the steering committee set up to progress implementation of the competency-based education framework. This group is working in partnership with global agencies involved in accreditation of teaching programmes and regulation of public health practitioners and/or government departments.