Gender equity in the health workforce: Analysis of 104 countries
Overview
The health and social sector, with its 234 million workers,
is one of the biggest and fastest growing employers in the
world, particularly of women. Women comprise seven
out of ten health and social care workers and contribute
US$ 3 trillion annually to global health, half in the form of
unpaid care work.
Underinvestment in the health and social workforce
undermines the prospects of achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The WHO SDG health price tag
study finds that almost half of the investment required to
achieve the health SDGs relates to education, training and
employment of health workers.
The WHO Global Strategy
on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 (GSHRH)
estimates a global shortfall of almost 18 million health
workers by 2030, primarily in low- and lower middle
income countries. The GSHRH also calls for strengthening
data and progressive implementation of National Health
Workforce Accounts (NHWA).
Investing in the health and
social workforce not only contributes to the achievement
of universal health coverage and to global health security,
but, as the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level
Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth
found, investments in the health and social workforce have
a powerful multiplier effect on economic growth and can
contribute to maximizing women’s economic empowerment
and participation. WHO, together with the International Labour Organization
(ILO) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), adopted the Working for Health
programme in 2017, a joint inter-agency multi-SDG
programme to accelerate the expansion and transformation
of the health and social workforce.
The programme
embraces gender as a core tenant and seeks to utilize
workforce plans, investments and actions to seize the
opportunities to realize the gender dividend. In November
2017, WHO established the Global Health Workforce Network
which includes a Data and Evidence Hub and a Gender
Equity Hub, which both bring together key stakeholders for
strengthening data and evidence and supporting gender
transformative actions and investments.
While gender issues have been at the top of the global
agenda, few comprehensive studies on gender in the health
and social workforce have been conducted at the global
level. This brief is based on an analysis of WHO NHWA data for 104 countries over the last 18 years.
