This independent review report and assessment of the Working for Health five-year Action Plan analyses its relevance, effectiveness and results, and considers the COVID-19 pandemic, the evolution of the health workforce agenda, and shifting economic policy priorities. The assessment findings and corresponding Director-General report propose a way forward that builds on the five-year action plan and its MPTF mechanism to date, and looks to engage new partners, donors and international financing institutions to ensure that Member States have access to technical assistance and the catalytic financial support required to develop a sustainable health and care workforce, that is protected, empowered, and resilient.

Regional economic development has attracted the interest of economists, geographers, planners and regional scientists for a long time. And, of course, it is a field that has developed a large practitioner cohort in government and business agencies from the national down to the state and local levels. In planning for cities and regions, both large and small, economic development issues now tend to be integrated into strategic planning processes. For at least the last 50 years, scholars from various disciplines have theorised about the nature of regional economic development, developing a range of models seeking to explain the process of regional economic development, and why it is that regions vary so much in their economic structure and performance and how these aspects of a region can change dramatically over time. Regional scientists in particular have developed a comprehensive tool-kit of methodologies to measure and monitor regional economic characteristics such as industry sectors, employment, income, value of production, investment, and the like, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, and focusing on both static and dynamic analysis. The 'father of regional science', Walter lsard, was the first to put together a comprehensive volume on techniques of regional analysis (Isard 1960), and since then a huge literature has emerged, including the many titles in the series published by Springer in which this book is published.