9.L. Round table: “What” and “How” for building competencies for effective policy making in and for public health
Authors:   Organised by: WHO/Europe, University of Bremen (Germany),   Chair persons: Emilia Aragon De Leon (WHO/Europe)
Published: October 2024

Policymakers operating within the field of public health must regularly draw on their skills or competencies to facilitate engagement in and between policy sectors and with the public, to navigate the larger landscape of public health institutions and governance levels across the policy cycle, to generate, understand, and apply evidence for decision making, as well as to negotiate the demands of diverse stakeholders. What exactly are the competencies needed and how can they be cultivated to enhance the collective capacity of policymaking institutions? The increasing strain placed on public health systems worldwide, owing specially to challenges in population ageing, the burden of non-communicable diseases, and the exigencies introduced by pandemics, environmental disasters, and geo-political instabilities push us to expand the scope of public health. A look to the policy environs and outcomes seen within and across countries demonstrates that the quality of policy is both highly variable and exceedingly subject to the quality of public health leadership itself. These developments shed light on the need for greater investment in the development of competencies needed by policymakers to engage in effective decision making on key issues impacting population health and the resilience of public health systems. This includes efforts to strengthen the abilities of policymakers to identify problems, recognize opportunities, and put forth solutions in line with robust data and evidence, principles of public health ethics, gaps and priorities in public health needs, and in accordance with financial and political realities. The proposed roundtable will examine the state-of-the-art on policymaking competencies in public health, and how to build them by examining the barriers and opportunities. The panel will convene leading experts in the field of public health research and practice to explore:

1) the conceptual definition of competencies for policymaking at different levels of governance and across the policy cycle;

2) the strengths and limits of competency frameworks and their utility in guiding assessment and training tools, as well as policy practice;

3) the challenges associated with developing, maintaining and transferring competencies in fast-changing, multi-level policy making environments;

4) the challenges for public health experts and institutions to be trusted advisors both by policy makers and other stakeholders and the population; and

5) the opportunities to harness the unexploited power of professional networks in some countries of Europe.

Key messages

• An enhanced research agenda and investment are needed for the development of competencies - individual and collective - for effective public health policy-making and stronger governance.

• Innovative approaches to policy-making are needed, and this requires building competencies, including leadership, for addressing the complex nature of public health.