The aim of the family planning and comprehensive abortion care (FP and CAC) competencies for the primary health care workforce is to advance improvements in FP and CAC service delivery by aligning health worker education approaches with population health needs and health system demands. This document, which describes these competencies in detail, is intended to: describe competencies that are relevant to current and future health practice; and enable widespread use of the competencies for curriculum development, for pre-service education, but also for in-service education, regulation, qualifications, quality assurance, personal development, performance evaluation, recruitment, management and career progression. The competencies can be used in many ways by the following target audiences: health workers and their managers, educators, policy makers and regulators. The most relevant uses for these FP and CAC competencies will be: to define the learning outcomes/objectives for education and training, to design curriculum and learning activities and to help identify learning needs/gaps (both knowledge and hands-on techniques), whether in the context of pre-service curricula, on-the-job training, or when working towards further qualifications; as performance standards for recruitment, compiling job descriptions, performance appraisal, and for optimizing roles within the health workforce.

The 2023 annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Consortium on Healthy Ageing (CCHA) took place in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2023. It was the group’s ninth gathering. The meeting consisted of seven panels of presentation and discussion taking place across three days: 1.WHO’s new initiatives on ageing and health 2.Musculoskeletal health 3.Implementation of the ICOPE approach 4.Emerging themes to strengthen integrated care 5.Updating ICOPE care pathways 6.Multidimensional approach to research on healthy ageing 7.CCHA and GNLTC joint panel: Continuum of integrated care for older people

The primary objective of this curriculum is to equip health and care workers with the essential knowledge and competencies necessary for delivering safe and effective care. By doing so it aims to significantly reduce HAIs and combat antimicrobial resistance, thereby safeguarding both patient and HCWs well-being. This curriculum is developed to meet the needs of IPC professionals responsible for developing learning resources and overseeing training within health care organizations. Moreover, the curriculum is intended to encompass all individuals involved in health care delivery and support. This holistic approach includes a wide range of staff -ranging from clinical workers to administrative and auxiliary services, thus ensuring a broad and inclusive approach to IPC training. The guide is designed to be flexible, allowing for adaptation to various educational and practical contexts to meet specific national and local IPC requirements and policies. It delineates three distinct competency levels within the curriculum: • foundational: introduces basic IPC principles applicable universally across all health and care worker roles; • intermediate: delivers more detailed IPC practices, particularly for clinical practitioners in direct contact with patients; • advanced: provides specialized IPC knowledge tailored for clinical specialists and managerial roles, reflecting the specific needs of their positions and settings. This curriculum serves as an essential reference tool to support the planning, development, and localization of IPC education materials, aligning closely with the WHO core components for IPC programmes and the directions provided within the WHO global strategy and action plan on IPC. It supports countries in their efforts to implement actions to improve IPC knowledge and skills among health and care workers according to the recommendations in the WHO global action plan and monitoring framework. By enhancing the IPC competencies of health and care workers, this guide supports the capacity of the health care system to effectively manage and prevent infections, which is particularly crucial in improving patient outcomes and promoting safer health care environments, including in the context of epidemics, pandemics and other public health emergencies.

This roadmap is a statement of a collective vision to develop a shared understanding on the definition, classification and scope of work of the workforce which delivers the EPHFs, and the subsequent collaborative activities to build capacity of this workforce through competency-based education. The roadmap is developed with, and for, countries including key stakeholders such as associations of national public health institutes and schools of public health and proposes a differentiated and progressive approach for countries acknowledging varying capacities and contexts. Across the action areas, this will aid countries to benchmark themselves and assess their current situation; facilitate provision of guidance and tools; and support progress to full implementation towards a strengthened public health workforce delivering all EPHFs for UHC, health security and improved health and wellbeing. TARGET AUDIENCE: Policy-makers, health workers and key stakeholders within and outside the health sector involved in public health and emergency preparedness and response.