The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed to extend its global strategy that advises governments across the world on priorities for nursing and midwifery.
Earlier this week, the WHO held its 78th World Health Assembly, at which all 194 member states came together to debate agenda items and adopt resolutions on key issues related to health.
One of the resolutions passed was to extend the WHO’s Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery 2021-2025.
It includes recommendations for international governments on how to improve the provision of nursing and midwifery care and how to bolster the workforce.
The strategy is divided into four policy focus areas: education, jobs, leadership and service delivery.
Policy aims that have been prioritised in recent years include increasing the proportion of men in nursing, reducing midwifery shortages, increasing the proportion of nurses who are university graduates and implementing advanced practice nursing roles.
The strategy was due to expire in December 2025, but members of the WHO’s executive board recommended earlier this year that it should be extended to 2030, with updated priorities.
The WHO’s assembly has this week voted to take the recommendation forward.
New priorities mooted for 2026-2030 include “leveraging” technology to help train more nurses, scaling up the domestic production of nurses and midwives and reducing inequitable international recruitment agreements that have often only benefitted wealthy receiver countries, such as the UK.
The WHO noted that its 2025 State of the World’s Nursing report, published earlier this month, revealed that nurses account for approximately 39% of the global health workforce shortage.
As such, it said the decision to extend the nurse-specific strategy marked a critical step forward in advancing health priorities and ensuring health systems were equipped to meet current and future demands.
Dr Pamela Cipriano, president of the International Council of Nurses (ICN), told Nursing Times she was “very pleased” that the WHO approved the extension of the Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery.
“That’s really the effector arm to take the State of the World’s Nursing [report] and put it into action and actually put resources to the implementation,” she said.
