| 25
May, 2006
Severe
Health Workers shortage, especially
in sub-Saharan Africa
On 25th May 2006 a new WHO-backed
global alliance was launched to address
the worldwide shortage of nurses,
doctors and other health workers.
The Alliance will draw together key
partners to help countries improve
the way plan for, educate and employ
health workers.
Responding
to calls by African Heads of State,
the G8 industrialized countries and
the World Health Assembly for urgent
solutions to the health workforces
crisis, the Alliance, whose secretariat
will be hosted by WHO, will seek practical
approaches such as improving working
conditions and reaching more effective
agreements to manage the migration
of health workers. It will also serve
as an international information hub
and monitoring body.
Fifty-seven
countries, 36 of them in sub-Saharan
Africa, have severe shortages of and
more than 4 million additional doctors,
nurses, midwives, managers and public
health workers are urgently needed
to fill this gap. An adequate health
workforce is defined by WHO as at
least 2.3 well trained health care
providers available per year 1,000
people and balanced in such a way
as to reach 80 per cent of the population
or more with skilled birth attendance
and childhood immunization.
“The
Fast Track Training Initiative”
– a starting ambitious programme
of the alliance aimed at achieving
a rapid increase in the number of
qualified health workers in countries
experiences shortage by mobilizing
direct financial support for training
institutions, setting up partnerships
between schools in industrialized
and developing countries for exchanges
of faculty and students and returning
academic leaders in developing countries
with the support of experts from around
the world.
"The
Global Health Workforce Alliance will
bring together all the stakeholders
needed to move forward on this plan
with a view to sharing evidence-based
practices countries can follow to
expand their workforces and make them
more effective," said Dr Lincoln
Chen, WHO Special Envoy for Human
Resources for Health and Chair of
the Alliance's Board.
The
initial partners of the Alliance include
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
the Canadian International Development
Agency, the European Commission, the
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization,
the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard
University, the International Council
of Nurses, the New Partnership for
Africa's Development, the Norwegian
Agency for Development Cooperation,
the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand,
Physicians for Human Rights, the World
Bank and WHO.
Its
Executive Director, Prof. Francis
G Omaswa, is the former Director General
of Health Services of Uganda. The
Government of Norway has donated US$
3.5 million towards the Alliance's
operations during its first year.
Seed money for its start-up was donated
by the governments of Canada, Ireland
and Sweden.
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