The World Health Organization (WHO) Academy in Lyon, France, officially opened its doors yesterday with a high-profile inauguration ceremony. The event took place in the presence of WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, French President HE Emmanuel Macron, as well as dozens of health ministers, international representatives, donors and French partners local.
The WHO Academy is a groundbreaking project that will help create a better-trained health workforce around the world, through the most ambitious continuing education program ever designed in public health. More concretely, through training provided in Lyon and around the world on its online platform, it will provide access to critical skills and competencies as well as the latest knowledge and know-how in public health to health professionals, politicians – decision-makers and WHO staff.
Through partnerships with leading public health academic and research institutes around the world, the WHO Academy aims to address identified weaknesses in health systems, the first being the growing global shortage of health workers and of care, which should reach 10 million. by 2030, but also the growing gap in terms of access to the latest research and innovations. The majority of this deficit will be felt in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa. To create and share access to the most advanced technologies for health, care and healthcare research and development, including AI, the Academy will bring additional capacity and efficiency directly to health systems.
Launched seven years ago, this pioneering initiative was made possible thanks to the generous support of the French government, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the City and Metropolis of Lyon, as well as other global partners. The new state-of-the-art WHO Academy campus spans 11,000 square meters and includes: twenty-two training rooms, two distance learning rooms, a simulation center, a training operations center emergency room, a TV recording studio, a modern auditorium and a library.
The Academy also has an online learning platform that democratizes access to world-class health education. This platform offers free, cutting-edge courses on priority health topics, ensuring that professionals around the world can access high-quality training, regardless of their location.
President Emmanuel Macron said: “Today, we can be proud to open the doors of a new global institution in the city of Lyon, which will bring the world the best in terms of training and innovation in health. very powerful to make healthcare more accessible everywhere. This investment will benefit everyone, because better trained health workers are absolutely essential to making our world safer, including preventing and responding to future pandemics. confidence in its ability to guide our health policies throughout the world and to coordinate our actions, to be ever more effective in serving our populations on the ground.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “WHO is known for producing world-class technical products – guidelines, norms and standards – but their translation into concrete actions has been hampered by the lack of of institutionalized training. Often our technical products sit unused on shelves or unread in inboxes. The WHO Academy will be a game-changer, being a first-of-its-kind global health learning center that will equip health and care workers, policy makers and our own global workforce with the skills and the skills they need to transform health systems and ensure health for all. »
The shortage of health professionals poses one of the greatest challenges to global health. It has left millions of people without access to essential health services, such as immunization, maternal care, treatment of communicable diseases, etc.
Thanks to the WHO Academy, thousands of health professionals will be trained each year. By 2028, the Academy aims to train 3 million healthcare professionals, including nurses, clinicians and midwives, as well as 900 senior decision-makers and 13,000 public health officials. The WHO Academy will produce 50 to 80 courses per year from 2025 to 2028, totaling approximately 260 new courses by 2028.
The WHO Academy represents a bold step forward in closing the global health workforce gap. By providing accessible, high-quality education and training to healthcare professionals around the world, the Academy will play a key role in strengthening health systems, improving service delivery and promoting health equity.