World Health Day 2006:
Working together for health
Dr Tim Evans, Assistant Director
-General Evidence and Information for Policy,
World Health Organization
Health workers - the people who provide health care to those who need it - are the heart of health systems. But around the world, the health workforce is in crisis - a crisis to which no country is entirely immune. The results are evident: clinics with no health workers, hospitals that cannot recruit or keep key staff.
There is a chronic global shortage of health workers, as a result of decades of underinvestment in their education, training, salaries, working environment and management. This has led to a severe lack of key skills, rising levels of career switching and early retirement, as well as national and international migration.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where all the issues mentioned above are combined with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there are an estimated 750 000 health workers in a region that is home to 682 million people. By comparison, the ratio is ten to 15 times higher in OECD countries, whose ageing population is putting a growing strain on an over-stretched workforce.
Solutions to this crisis must be worked out at local, national and international levels, and must involve governments, the United Nations, health professionals, non-governmental organizations and community leaders.
There is no single solution to such a complex problem, but ways forward do exist and must now be implemented. For example, some developed countries have put policies in place to stop active recruitment of health workers from severely understaffed countries. Some developing countries have revised their pay scales and introduced non-monetary incentives to retain their workforce and deploy them in rural areas. Education and training procedures have been tailored to countries specific needs. Community health workers are helping their communities to prevent and treat key diseases. Action must be taken now for results to show in the coming years.
In 2006, World Health Day (celebrated annually on 7 April), will be devoted to the health workforce crisis. On this day around the globe, hundreds of organizations will host events to draw attention to the global health workforce crisis and celebrate the dignity and value of working for health. We invite you to join with WHO and other organizations to celebrate World Health Day 2006. Together, we can make a difference.
World Health Day 2006
World Health Day takes place every year on April 7th. This year’s theme for World Health Day is Health Human Resources and will also coincide with the launch of the ‘World Health Report 2006: Working for Health’ and the launch of the Health Workforce Decade (2006-2015).
The Day will energize relevant constituencies to celebrate health workers around the world. The follow-up activities of the Decade will focus on implementing and evaluating policies and strategies for workforce development.
Some of the core messages for this Day are summarized here:
Health workers are crucially important for producing good health through the performance of health systems; they constitute a significant share of the labour force and perform key social roles in all societies.
Health for All, Primary Health Care and Millennium Development Goals are not achievable without an appropriately prepared, deployed and supported health workforce.
Good health depends also on good governance and stewardship of the health labour market, and country leadership is the key to sustainable Health Human Resource development.
Significantly increased and strategically placed investment of international and domestic funds in education, planning and management of the health workforce is crucial for achieving equity-oriented national health goals.
World Health Report 2006: Working for Health
The World Health Report, first published in 1995, is WHO’s leading publication. Each year the report combines an expert assessment of global health, including statistics relating to all countries, with a focus on a specific subject – this year being the Health Workforce.
The main purpose of the report is to provide countries, donor agencies, international organizations and others with the information they need to help them make policy and funding decisions. The report is also offered to a wider audience, from universities, teaching hospitals and schools, to journalists and the public at large – anyone, in fact, with a professional or personal interest in international health issues.
For the first time, WHO is offering open consultation on the World Health Report via the World Wide Web and electronic mail. Broad participation is encouraged – from schools for the health professions to national and international financing institutions to the ultimate beneficiaries of health services, the general public.
