Wemos advocates sustainable and fair health worker policy. Worldwide, health workers are unevenly distributed. It is expected that by 2030, there will be 40 million more health sector jobs, mostly in middle- and high- income countries – while in low-income countries, the shortage of health workers is expected to increase to 18 million. This would have a damaging impact on the health of the populations in these countries.
This strategy is part of the Health Systems Advocacy Partnership for strengthening health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and worldwide. Health workers have become increasingly mobile and their migration patterns have become more dynamic. For example, the increase of health workforce vacancies in European high-come countries – which offer higher salaries and better facilities – attracts trained health workers from low-income countries with poor working conditions and fragile health systems. This exacerbates the workforce shortage in low-income countries and leads to the ‘brain drain’ of valuable human resources.
For their part, low-income countries also attract health workers from other low-income countries, as well as from high-income countries. What is more: health workers do not only migrate between countries, but also within countries, and within and between regions. Health workforce mobility is thus not a one- or two-way street, but rather an entangled web of movement.
Our principle regarding health worker mobility is that we should not give with one hand (through development assistance for health), while also taking with the other (attracting health workers from countries with shortages).
The discussion about the increased global health workforce mobility and migration needs to include redistribution aspects as well as decent work conditions. Together with our African partner organizations, Wemos closely monitors health care institutions, unions, professional organizations, NGOs, health care personnel, recruitment agencies, migrant organizations and ministries to ensure that they adhere to the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (WHO Code). This Code aims to discourage unethical recruitment practices that undermine already weak health systems.
Wemos advocates ethical recruitment of foreign health staff
Decision makers in the European Union and member states should apply a coherent approach to the sector policies currently in place to develop and maintain sustainable health workforces both in and outside Europe. This requires solid cooperation of the health sector with the sector of education, labour, migration and finances as set out in the WHO Code and other global agreements on the health workforce.
Wemos therefore believes that:
Wemos was the coordinator of the project Health Workers for All – a collaboration between 8 countries – from 2013 until early 2016. We collected case studies from different countries, and organized expert meetings and a petition. Read the final report or go to our Health Workers for All page.
The Health Workers for All Coalition represents global, regional and local diverse groups of civil society organizations, academic institutions, and health workers’ professional associations and unions. The coalition advocates access to health workers for all in order to fulfil the right to health and to reach Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Secretariat of the Health Workers for All Coalition is hosted by Wemos.
Health workers worldwide are overburdened, burned out, and even being attacked while doing their job. Last week, during the World Health Worker Week 2019, there was a lot of attention for health workers worldwide. But actually they deserve this attention every week of the year. In their blogs, Wemos’ global health advocate Amanda Banda and [...]
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 led to increased global attention for the funding gap for health in low- and lower middle-income countries. Our new factsheet explains how governments can improve their health sectors by increasing their fiscal space for health and investing in their health workers. Health workers in many [...]
The start of the new year calls for some reflection. This is why we have compiled an overview of our highlights of 2018. We are proud of the results of our work for health for all. Have a look! 2018 was a year of new collaborations, media attention, joint letters, political support and enlarging our [...]
Corinne Hinlopen 'Are you angry enough to make these maternal mortality rates drop to 70 by 2030?!' Two piercing dark eyes are looking sternly over a pair of glasses at a group of students. They belong to Dr. Ann Phoya, President of the Association of Malawian Midwives (AMAMI). She is trying to instill a sense [...]
Despite efforts to increase the number of trained health workers, Malawi still has a large health workforce shortage. Wemos’ new report on financing for health in Malawi shows that insufficient funding is the major factor contributing to this shortage. Malawi has only around 0.5 health workers per 1,000 inhabitants. This is in stark contrast with [...]
How can we deal with ethical dilemmas in global health? Come and join the discussion on November 9th with Dr. Ann Phoya (President of the Association of Malawian Midwives) and others at the NTVG Symposium ‘Human resources, research and rights’ in De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam. Wemos will be co-organizing the event, together with NVTG, [...]
