As part of ongoing technical support to strengthen primary health care (PHC), the WHO Country Office in the Islamic Republic of Iran contributed to a capacity-building workshop on the PHC Operational Framework. Organized by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education for staff of the PHC Network Management Center hosted by Iran University of Medical Sciences, the workshop forms part of WHO's ongoing support to strengthen PHC as the foundation of a resilient and equitable people-centred health system.
Designed to support the PHC Network Management Center’s ongoing revision of the national PHC strengthening policy document and ensure greater alignment with global evidence and WHO guidance, the training aimed to enhance participants’ capacity to apply the PHC Operational Framework’s 14 levers in strategic planning and implementation.
The programme featured a series of interactive technical sessions covering each of the 4 strategic levers (political commitment and leadership, governance and policy frameworks, funding and allocation of resources and engagement of community and other stakeholders) and the 10 operational levers (models of care, PHC workers, physical infrastructure, medicines and other health products, engagement with private sector providers, purchasing and payment systems, digital technologies for health, systems for improving the quality of care, PHC-oriented research and monitoring and evaluation.
A dedicated cross-cutting session on health system resilience highlighted strategies for strengthening the capacity to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies while maintaining the delivery of essential health services.
Opening the workshop, Dr Babak Farouki, Director General of the PHC Network Management Center, underscored the central role PHC plays in improving population health and advancing universal health coverage. Strengthening PHC, he said, requires continuous investment in workforce capacity, evidence-informed planning and multisectoral collaboration to ensure that health services remain accessible, integrated and responsive to people's needs.
