In a pioneering step towards more inclusive health education, the University of Tartu in Estonia has integrated the WHO Global Competency Standards (GCS) for refugee and migrant health into its medical curriculum as a referenced elective e-course. This milestone aligns national training with international standards that promote culturally sensitive, equitable and people-centred health services, helping to ensure that health workers are prepared to respond to the specific health needs of refugees and migrants.
Developed by the WHO Special Initiative on Health and Migration, the standards define the core competencies and behaviours required for health workers to deliver quality care for refugees and migrants. The standards are organized across 5 key domains – people-centredness, communication, collaboration, evidence-informed practice and personal conduct – guiding health workers to respond to the needs of refugees and migrants, from language and cultural barriers to ethical and psychosocial considerations.
“Integrating the GCS into the medical curriculum represents a significant step in preparing doctors, nurses, midwives and all other health professionals to provide inclusive, respectful and evidence-informed care for all,” said Dr Santino Severoni, Head of WHO’s Special Initiative on Health and Migration. “This approach helps current and future health professionals to understand not only the science of medicine, but also the social and cultural dimensions of health.”
Medical students at the University of Tartu and other health professionals who actively practice can engage with the 5 domains through an elective course offered as part of the medical programme, which enables them to apply inclusive approaches in real-world clinical and community contexts. Introducing the WHO standards early in their learning journey gives them the tools to provide equitable care and to better understand the lived experiences of refugees and migrants,” says Kristina Köhler, Liaison Officer at WHO Estonia.
This initiative builds on WHO/Europe’s wider efforts to strengthen the health workforce’s capacity in refugee and migrant health. Several trainings on GCS have been held in Latvia and Romania for health professionals and mediators working with refugees from Ukraine, helping them to provide trauma-informed and culturally responsive care across Europe.
With this integration, Estonia becomes the first country worldwide to embed the GCS within medical education, providing a model for other institutions. Adoption of these standards by the University of Tartu underscores the growing recognition that inclusive health care begins in the classroom.
Estonia’s experience also offers practical insights for countries exploring how to strengthen workforce competencies within existing medical education structures. By demonstrating that the standards can be introduced through national institutions, the initiative illustrates a scalable approach that can be adapted to different health system contexts, supporting regional and global efforts to build preparedness and coherence in refugee and migrant health.
WHO is working with the European Union (EU) and the International Organization for Migration to support countries in improving access to health-care services for refugees and displaced people from Ukraine. The project, titled “Improving access to health care for refugees and people displaced from Ukraine benefiting from temporary protection in EU Member States,” is funded by the EU as part of the 2023 EU4Health work programme. It was implemented from 2023 to 2025 in 10 European countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania and Slovakia.