PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1656182
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Public Health Preparedness and Response in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Challenges, Opportunities, and Ways Forward – Insights from the 8th EMPHNET Regional ConferenceView all 4 articles
Professionalizing Public Health Education in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) Article type: Viewpoint Authors
Provisionally accepted
Elsheikh Badr1*
Sara Ali2Zainah Assaf2Abdelmounim BELALIA3
Iman Nuwayhid4John Middleton5
Katarzyna Czabanowska6Neil Squires7
Rajaa Al-Raddadi8
Yousef Khader9- 1RAK Medical & Health Sciences University, Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
- 2GHD|EMPHNET, Amman, Jordan
- 3Universite Mundiapolis, Casablanca, Morocco
- 4American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
- 5University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
- 6Universiteit Maastricht Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht, Netherlands
- 7UK Health Security Agency, London, United Kingdom
- 8King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- 9Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan
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During the eighth EMPHNET Regional Conference, a roundtable session gathered eight public health leaders and academics from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and Europe to discuss the professionalization of public health education with a focus on the EMR.The discussion reviewed the achievements, challenges, and prospects of public health education in the EMR and identified the tenets and strategies for professionalizing public health education and the public health workforce to better address health systems challenges. It also introduced the best practices and innovative approaches of public health professional education, and proposed strategies and interventions to strengthen public health education in the EMR towards professional and competency-based approaches. The findings highlighted that public health is not seen as an attractive career in the EMR due to the lack of clear career pathways and limited recognition. This has significant implications for education in the region, emphasizing the need to professionalize the public health workforce by leveraging international and regional experiences to address local challenges. The findings also underscored the importance of adopting competency-based approaches and pursuing professional recognition, credentialing, and regulation. In response, panelists recommended mapping and reviewing existing educational programs to develop competency-based frameworks and curricula tailored to the region's context. They also stressed the importance of fostering partnerships between academia and public health organizations to provide experiential training and education in public health.
Keywords: Public Health, health work force, Professional Education, Competncy Framework, Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), Public health professional education
Received: 29 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Badr, Ali, Assaf, BELALIA, Nuwayhid, Middleton, Czabanowska, Squires, Al-Raddadi and Khader. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elsheikh Badr, RAK Medical & Health Sciences University, Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
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