World Health Organization workshops

Workshop on human resources and health systems: shaping the agenda for action

WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, 2-4 December 2002

At the Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly, countries asked WHO: "to accelerate development of an action plan to address the ethical recruitment and distribution of skilled health care personnel, and the need for sound national policies and strategies for the training and management of human resources for health." Ministers of health from many countries have strongly identified human resources for health as a significant and confounding constraint to achieving their health policies.

This workshop was designed to provide an opportunity for ministries of health, multilateral and bilateral international agencies, foundations, NGOs, professional organizations and researchers to contribute to developing a human resources for health framework for policies, to validate and expand on human resource questions now faced by policy-makers, and to examine the evidence required for policy decisions.

More: www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/nhs_shaping_agenda.pdf

WHO consultation on imbalances in the health workforce

Ottawa, Canada, 10-12 March 2002

This meeting aimed to foster a better understanding of how shortages of health personnel are defined globally, what effects they have on health systems in different countries and how data can best be compiled to monitor this issue of global relevance.
The discussions focused on the following main themes:

• the rationale for WHO’s work on imbalances in the health workforce
• developing a conceptual framework for defining imbalances in the health workforce
• identifying sources of data required for optimal monitoring of imbalances
• Identifying areas for further research
  

There was consensus among participants that imbalance is an important area of concern and that work on how to describe it better must be pursued at a number of levels. Internationally, it is desirable to develop a common framework for defining and collecting data to allow inter country comparison of findings and sharing of potential solutions. At a national level, and particularly in developing countries, there is currently little effort to collect and use data to improve knowledge about, and management of, health workforce imbalances. There is a need to develop stronger networks between countries to improve the collection, analysis and comparison of health workforce statistics and to identify and test relevant indicators.

More: www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/consultation_imbalances.pdf

Workshop on Global Health Workforce Strategy

WHO, Annecy, France, 9-12 December, 2000

WHO established the Global Health Workforce Strategy Group (GHWSG) in February 2000, to support its work in improving health services by improving the performance of the health workforce. The workshop was arranged to inform the work of the GHWSG and to ensure that other stakeholders could participate fully in identifying priority areas for coordinated action to improve human resources for health (HRH) policy and practice, based on a timetable for strategic work. Participants in the workshop included representatives of governments, bilateral and multilateral donors, international agencies, human resources specialists, health worker organizations and health professions organizations, the World Bank and WHO regional offices and headquarters.

The overall aim of the workshop was to identify and agree on priorities for coordinated action in improving human resources for health (HRH) policy and practice, based on a timetable for strategic work involving the agreed participation of different stakeholders. Specific objectives were to improve the performance of health workers/health workforce by:

• improving understanding of the determinants of successful approaches to workforce development and HRH
• developing strategies and the evidence base in relation to the first point
• achieving consensus among stakeholders on a strategy for research, development of knowledge tools, and implementation mechanisms for HRH
  

More: www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/workforce_strategy.pd