Madrid, Spain, 14 May 2026 (PAHO) — The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) participated in the XVII Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Health, where health authorities and representatives of international organizations reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening regional cooperation in health, with a focus on preparedness and response to health emergencies, the production of and equitable access to medicines and health technologies, mental health, and health workforce development.
The conference, held in Madrid and chaired by Spain’s Minister of Health, Mónica García, was opened by Her Majesty Queen Letizia and forms part of the preparatory process for the XXX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, which will take place in November 2026.
Representing PAHO, James Fitzgerald, Director of the Department of Health Systems and Services, participated in the session on human resources for health, where he highlighted the structural challenges facing the Region of the Americas in ensuring a sufficient, well-trained, and equitably distributed health workforce.
“Latin America and the Caribbean face a triple crisis in the health workforce: insufficient training and production of health professionals, an aging workforce, and high levels of migration to higher-income countries,” said Fitzgerald during his intervention.
He also warned about the accelerating demographic transition within the health workforce itself. In several countries of the Region, more than 30% of physicians are aged 55 or older, anticipating a wave of retirements for which many health systems are not yet prepared. At the same time, he noted that the national production of health professionals remains insufficient and highly unequal across countries. These disparities, he explained, are compounded by increasing international migration of health workers, particularly from Caribbean and Latin American countries to higher-income nations. In some Caribbean countries, up to four out of five trained nurses emigrate, intensifying workforce shortages and undermining the sustainability of health systems.
During the session, James Fitzgerald emphasized the need to advance three priority areas: strengthening national health workforce policies, improving workforce information systems and planning, and transforming education and competency development models to respond to the current and future needs of health systems.
In this context, he highlighted the role of the PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health as a key regional platform for continuous training of health workers, with more than 4.8 million participants engaged in training processes across the Region.
The conference concluded with the adoption of a joint declaration whose elements will contribute to the outcome document of the upcoming Ibero-American Summit, reaffirming the importance of strengthening regional cooperation to advance more resilient, equitable, and better-prepared health systems.
