**4. United Nations sustainable developmental goals**

In 2015, United Nations (UN) Member States provided 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) to be achieved in global partnership, by all countries-developed and developing for peace and prosperity for all people and the planet, now and into the future [10]. Health worker density and distribution is indicator 3.c.1 of the UN SDGs, helping to track recruitment, development, training, and retention of healthcare workforce [10, 11]. In 2019, a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease (GBD) study measuring the availability of human resources for health (HRH) and its relationship to universal health coverage (UHC) for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019 indicated, the world had 104·0 million (95% uncertainty interval 83·5–128·0) HCWs including 12·8 million (9·7–16·6) physicians, 29·8 million (23·3–37·7) nurses and midwives, 4·6 million (3·6–6·0) dentistry personnel, and 5·2 million (4·0–6·7) pharmaceutical personnel [11]. A global physician density of 16·7 (12·6–21·6) per 10,000 population, and a nurse and midwife density of 38·6 (30·1–48·8) per 10,000 population, was calculated [11]. GBD super-regions of sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, north Africa, and the Middle East had the lowest HRH densities [11]. To reach 80 out of 100 on the UHC effective coverage index, an estimation per 10,000 population, at least 20·7 physicians, 70·6 nurses and midwives, 8·2 dentistry personnel, and 9·4 pharmaceutical personnel would be needed [11]. In total, the 2019 national health workforces fell short of these minimum thresholds by 6·4 million physicians, *30·6 million nurses and midwives*, 3·3 million dentistry personnel, and 2·9 million pharmaceutical personnel [11].
