We Have Changed

With the announcement of the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, the world is finally awakening to the crisis in human resources in health care. Until now, the vast majority of the energy and money spent on health in the developing world has not been in this direction. Maybe because the remedies are so complex, or it isn't a sexy enough topic, or it is linked to such an elaborate web of social, cultural and economic factors. As a recent commentary in The Lancet put it: "That the workforce was the engine of health work- obvious to practitioners and leaders on the ground in affected countries- was simply invisible to global leaders."
The Joint Learning Initiative has been one of the organizations at the forefront of bringing this issue to light. The WHO has also launched the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), which announced the upcoming Global Forum on Human Resources to be held in Kampala, Uganda on March 4-7. As The Lancet article points out, GHWA is launching four global task forces to address human resource problems: 1)Fast-tracking training and education 2)Ameliorating harmful aspects of migration 3)Harmonizing HIV efforts with health systems (so 'vertical' programs don't steal from Peter to pay Paul, i.e., drain health workers from public health to specialized NGO programs) and 4)Develop feasible financing options.
No easy task. 'A Year in the Life: Healing Africa' has one simple goal: to humanize these often abstract concepts. Just one part of a changing tide.