From deaths, illness, burnout and mental health issues experienced during COVID-19 to attacks and harassment in conflict zones, health and care workers around the world face occupational hazards and risks. The World Health Organization projects a global deficit of 11 million health workers by 2030, with two regions bearing an increasing proportion of the gaps. Urgent action is needed to protect, support and safeguard health and care workers as a vital component of strong and resilient health systems.

The Global health and care worker compact identifies ten areas of focus within four domains – preventing harm, providing support, ensuring inclusivity and safeguarding rights –where governments and societies can improve the work environments and rights realization of the people doing health and care work. The Health and care worker law and policy lab consolidates national laws across each of those domains along with a guide to the existing international legal obligations to safeguard the rights of health and care workers and ensure that they have decent and enabling work environments. It is housed at https://www.hcwpolicylab.org/.

The Care compact assessment tool presents a structured approach for countries in evaluating the extent to which their laws, policies and governance mechanisms align with the Global health and care worker compact and related international labour and human rights standards. The tool is operationalized through a set of indicators and guided questions that enable systematic, cross-sectoral review of national policy and legal environments. Designed primarily for governments and relevant stakeholders, it facilitates dialogue, identifies policy gaps and supports the development of evidence-based action plans. Its modular structure allows both rapid overviews and in-depth analyses, while also enabling periodic assessments, data aggregation and comparison to monitor progress and inform health workforce policy and planning.

With the World Innovation Summit for Health and Qatar University, we are taking forward the recommendations of the Our duty of care mental health report recommendations by developing a practical tool at hospital level and a WHO implementation guide. In 2025, we conducted a workshop with colleagues in Qatar and Spain to operationalise and detail the intervention components and plan of action for service delivery. 

Well-designed and implemented laws and policies support health and care workers, improve retention, and support their engagement in health systems, efforts to end future pandemics, and improve global public health. Law is among the most powerful public health tools to support those doing lifesaving work in clinics and hospitals, homes and care facilities, war zones and climate disasters. The first step in applying this tool is understanding how national laws may or may not support that goal.