On 4–5 June, ministers of health and high-level delegates from the WHO European Region’s 12 smallest countries will convene in Riga, Latvia, for the 12th ministerial high-level meeting of WHO/Europe’s Small Countries Initiative (SCI). This year, the ministerial event’s focus will be on one of the most pressing challenges facing health systems today: building a resilient, sustainable and future-ready health workforce.
Jointly organized by WHO/Europe and the Ministry of Health of Latvia, the 2-day meeting, under the theme “From scarcity to sustainability: can small nations lead workforce innovations?”, will provide a platform for countries to move beyond the diagnosis of challenges and toward practical, coordinated solutions. At its core is a clear and urgent priority: ensuring that health systems are equipped with the workforce needed to meet rising population needs, respond to crises and sustain essential services.
Why focus on the health workforce
Across the Region, the health workforce has become the decisive factor determining whether countries can deliver sustainable and inclusive health care to their populations. Small countries in particular face a convergence of pressures that threaten their ability to protect population health and sustain a resilient health workforce, including intensifying health security risks, dual population and workforce ageing, persistent shortages and uneven distribution and destabilizing migration and public-private labour flows.
Limited labour markets, constrained training capacity and high exposure to external shocks leave systems especially vulnerable to pressures such as workforce shortages, migration, ageing populations and increasing health security risks.
The meeting in Latvia will bring ministers together to address these challenges head-on, with a focus on:
- health system security, sustainability and resilience
- better policies, governance and planning
- advancing the skills mix
- expanding nursing leadership and multidisciplinary care
- improving workforce retention and well-being
- leveraging digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to optimize capacity.
The meeting is expected to culminate with the adoption of a joint outcome statement, setting out strategic directions for the 12 countries and WHO/Europe on this particular theme.
The Latvia meeting builds on previous SCI commitments and aligns closely with the priorities of WHO/Europe’s Second European Programme of Work 2026–2030 (EPW2) and the Framework for Action on the Health and Care Workforce in the WHO European Region 2023–2030. It reflects a shared understanding that investing in the health workforce is not only a policy priority, but a prerequisite for resilient health systems and healthier populations.
As small countries continue to act as agile innovators, the lessons and solutions emerging from this meeting are expected to resonate far beyond their borders, demonstrating that when small countries lead, others can follow.
The initiative provides a unique platform for countries to collaborate, share experiences and develop innovative policy responses tailored to their specific contexts.
About the SCI
Established in 2013, the SCI is a network of 12 countries with populations of 2 million or fewer: Andorra, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino and Slovenia.