Health Workforce at the sixty-ninth World Health Assembly

23 May 2016 - Delegates from WHOs 194 Member States are in Geneva for the Sixty-ninth session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) to conduct an annual review of WHO’s activities and set new priorities for the future.

Several health workforce items are tabled for discussion and/or adoption:

In addition, many other topics on the agenda are intricately related to human resources for health (HRH), such as prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, healthy ageing, global vaccine action plan, antimicrobial resistance, and WHO response in large-scale emergencies.

The Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 (the Global Strategy)
has been drafted following extensive consultation processes since late 2013. The Strategy provides an ambitious agenda to progress towards Universal Health Coverage and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The draft Global Strategy has been fine-tuned to take account of additional inputs received from Member States following the discussions during the 138th Executive Board session in January 2016. The upcoming WHA is crucial for the HRH agenda with the Global Strategy up for adoption by the Member States.

The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (the Code)
Results from the second round of national reporting will be presented to Member States, which demonstrate that the quantity and the quality of reporting by Member States on the implementation of the Code has improved considerably since the first round of reporting in 2013. There has been an increase of 37% in the number of designated national authorities, of which 63% submitted complete reports.

HRH is also central to many other WHA side events being hosted by Member States of the WHO:

24 May 2016 – 18:00 to 19:30 | Salle 8, Palais des Nations
Sponsored by Brazil, France, Norway and South Africa, a Ministerial roundtable: High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth which will speak to addressing health workforce deficits and stimulating employment and inclusive economic growth

26 May 2016 – 18:00 to 20:30 | Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental
To mark the successful completion of GHWA’s ten year mandate, GHWA will host a Gala Reception & Health Workforce Awards Ceremony

27 May 2016 - 12:30 – 14:00 | Salle 7, Palais des Nations
A side event Sponsored by: Nepal, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe on Progress towards UHC and Sustainable Development, includes a discussion on Community Health Workers.

Successful completion of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) mandate

The 69th WHA also marks the successful completion of GHWA’s 10-year mandate and will be the opportunity to introduce to Member States and partners to the new Global Health Workforce Network succeeding GHWA. The Global Network will be anchored in the vision of the Global Strategy to “Accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring equitable access to health workers within strengthened health systems”. Building on the experience of GHWA, the Global Network will convene various stakeholders – development partners, civil society, professional associations, academia, and agencies from health and other sectors – to contribute to implementation of the Global Strategy around a common goal and accountability framework.