The Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, launched at the 69th World Health Assembly in 2016, aims at having universal availability, accessibility, acceptability, coverage and quality of health workforce that supports effective health service delivery. In this session, we examine what the laboratory workforce of the 21st century should look like, including having more than just technical skills, a workforce that is periodically evaluated, and a workforce that is adequately compensated in the era of epidemiological disease transition, one health, technology advances, globalization and pandemics. The session presentation was made by Dr Suzanne Kiwanuka, Senior Lecturer in Health Policy Planning and Management, at Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda. Please follow the links here to view the recorded ECHO session and download the presentation slides.