Global Forum Calls For Immediate Action To Resolve The Global Health Worker Crisis

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Mar 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The first-ever Global Forum on Human Resources for Health called for immediate and sustained action to resolve the critical shortage of health workers around the world, through the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action, which lays out the essential steps that need to be taken over the next decade to turn the crisis around.

The Forum, held in Kampala, Uganda and organized by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, mandated GHWA to monitor and evaluate progress made on the Declaration and Agenda and report back at the Second Global Forum on human resources for health, to be held in 2010.

Nearly 1500 participants from over 100 countries, including over 30 Ministers of Health, Education, Finance and Public Service, global leaders and experts from the health sector, civil society, donors, the private sector and professional organizations endorsed the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action, under the slogan "Health Workers for All and All for Health Workers" and committed themselves to take ownership and implement the steps laid out, with immediate effect.

"Health workers are the cornerstone of health systems. This Forum has been extremely important for addressing this critical issue and has been long overdue. This issue is finally receiving the attention it deserves," said World Health Organization (WHO) Deputy Director-General, Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah who participated and spoke at the Forum.

Key objectives called for in the Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action include:

- Government leaders to take overall responsibility to resolve the health worker crisis, involving all relevant stakeholders and provide political momentum.

- International and regional financial institutions to relax constraints on national health spending, especially spending on health workers-for example, by the lifting of public health recruitment ceilings.

- Countries to actively involve civil society, faith-based organizations, the private sector and representatives of the health professions to develop costed national health workforce plans.

- Leaders of development partners to provide coordinated, sustainable support to implement these plans and fulfil current pledges.

- WHO to accelerate negotiations for a code of practice on the international recruitment of health workers. This code will be a tool used by countries, regions and health professionals to negotiate agreements.

- Governments to institute coordinated policies for an immediate, massive scale up of community and mid-level health workers

- Governments to assure adequate financial and non-financial incentives and better working conditions to ensure the retention of health workers.

- Rich and poor countries to give top priority to train and recruit sufficient health personnel from within their own country.

- All countries to strengthen their health workforce management and monitoring capacity, so that WHO can collect and share better data.

The Kampala Agenda for Action and Declaration, initiated by GHWA and developed in wide consultation with partners and stakeholders, builds on commitments already made on the issue of development and health around the world such as African countries' pledge to dedicate 15% of their national budgets to health or rich countries' pledge to allocate 0.7% of their gross domestic product to foreign aid.

"This is about much more than a health issue. It is about political choice. It is about quality of life and the dignity of individuals. Therefore, providing health workers for all is the responsibility of all societies and their governments," said Dr Francis Omaswa, Executive Director of GHWA.

According to WHO, the world needs over 4 million additional health workers, and at least 57 countries around the world are suffering from an acute shortage. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly affected by this crisis with one million health workers needed for this region alone. Lack of health workers is recognized as a key constraint to reaching health and development goals and the progress of responses to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. New research on issues such as education and training, migration and retention, leadership and financing are being explored and discussed in depth during the First Global Forum, which will continue through 7 March.

Read the Kampala Declaration.

Read the Kampala Agenda for Global Action.

http://www.who.int