• Lina Bader, Ian Bates, and Chris John.
• FIP Education, International Pharmaceutical Federation, The Netherlands.
• East. Mediterr. Health J. 2018 Dec 9; 24 (9): 899-904.

BackgroundThe pharmaceutical workforce in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region plays a key role in improving health outcomes through responsible use of drugs and optimizing effective choice and use. Investment in this workforce's development and planning is fundamental to achieving universal health coverage.AimsTo provide an overview of the pharmacy workforce capacity trends in the Region and emphasize the importance of workforce intelligence for strategic development.MethodsA review of the literature and global pharmacy workforce studies conducted by the International Pharmaceutical Federation to identify trends and issues in the Region.ResultsThe Region has high workforce production capacity compared to other WHO regions but challenges in workforce planning and intelligence strategies persist. Effective workforce planning relies not only on quality intelligence, but also on cross-sectoral coordination and stewardship, and the Pharmaceutical Workforce Development Goals provide countries within the Region with a framework for development.ConclusionThere is no workforce development without workforce intelligence.Copyright © World Health Organization (WHO) 2018. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).

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