In line with the League of Arab States' commitment to strengthening health systems in Arab Member States and the need to develop mechanisms for preserving health competencies, the first meeting of the committee tasked with preparing the Arab Strategy for Utilising Arab Migrant Health Competencies will be convened on 1–2 October 2025 at the General Secretariat headquarters. The meeting is held in implementation of Resolution 9 of the Council of Arab Health Ministers, adopted at its 61st ordinary session in December 2024 in the Republic of Iraq, which called for mobilising Arab migrant health competencies.
The meeting seeks to formulate a comprehensive Arab strategy for engaging Arab migrant health professionals and to establish a unified Arab framework that strengthens institutional linkages with Arab health experts abroad. The goal is to activate their role and create an enabling environment to harness their potential in service of their countries of origin.
It is worth noting that the First Arab Conference on the Role of Arab Migrant Health Workers was held on 19–20 October 2024 in Amman, under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The conference issued the "Amman Declaration," which underscored the importance of developing a strategy to leverage Arab migrant health workers in support of Arab health sectors. It further highlighted the need to establish a database of Arab migrant health professionals and to utilise their expertise across health disciplines. The Declaration also invited the Arab Council for Health Specialisations to submit an initiative aimed at empowering Arab migrant health professionals to contribute to specialised education.
The migration of health workers has become a central issue on the global health agenda, given its growing scale amid a worldwide shortage of health professionals and the increasing demands of universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.
In this context, the pursuit of national, Arab, regional, and international efforts remains vital to addressing the migration of health workers and mitigating its negative impact on Arab health systems.
It should also be noted that the Arab Conference on Arab Migrant Health Competencies in Supporting Health Systems is convened biennially, and will be hosted in 2026 by the Arab Republic of Egypt.
