Frontline Health Workers Coalition Launched
New coalition addresses one million frontline health workers shortage
16 JANUARY 2012 - The Frontline Health Workers Coalition — an alliance of major non-governmental organizations, including PMNCH partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Care International, Save the Children and World Vision — is calling for the addition of one million healthcare workers in developing countries as the most cost-effective way to save the lives of mothers and children.
The Coalition, which launched last week with the release of a new report focusing on the need for frontline health workers, is starting with a call on the U.S. administration to train and support an additional 250,000 new frontline health workers—and to better support the capacity and impact of existing workers where the need is greatest.
“The world has experienced dramatic declines in deaths thanks largely to the care provided by these local health heroes,” Mary Beth Powers, chair of the Coalition, said in a press release put forward by the new coalition on the day of its launch. “But despite this progress, nearly 21,000 children still die every day, most from preventable causes, and 1,000 girls and women die each day in pregnancy and childbirth. Investing in the technologies and medicines to prevent and treat diseases is important, but insufficient. Simply put, without health workers to deliver the life-saving medicines and information, there is no pathway to good health.”