WHA Adopts Global Code on International Recruitment of Health Workers
05/21/2010
Mary Robinson and Francis Omaswa urge WHA to adopt Code of Practice
Update, May 21
The World Health Assembly's approval of the Code of Practice is an historic step forward both in protecting migrant health workers' rights and in tackling the catastrophic shortage of trained health professionals in the developing world."
-Mary Robinson, President, Realizing Rights
Geneva - Delegates at the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today approved the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. This new Code of Practice, only the second of its kind adopted by the WHA, aims to promote the interests of health workers and ameliorate the negative effects from the international migration of health workers on countries experiencing severe health workforce crises. The effects of health worker migration have been highlighted for many years and continue to seriously undermine efforts by developing nations to ensure adequate health care.
"The World Health Assembly's approval of the Code of Practice is an historic step forward in recognizing shared responsibilities for realizing the right to health," said Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and co-chair of the Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council. Robinson was in Geneva for the WHA meeting and chaired an event on May 18 to urge approval of the Code.
"The Code affirms that the rights of health professionals, including their right to seek work in other countries, must be protected while addressing the catastrophic shortage of trained health professionals in the developing world," Robinson noted. "I am pleased that governments came together to create an ethical global framework-one which provides clear guidance for governments and the private sector alike as they recruit health workers, recognizing that the benefits of migration must flow to sending as well as receiving nations."
The new Code provides recommendations around increasing health workforce production, expanding development assistance on the part of major donor nations to help source countries train and retain their health workers, and scaling up reporting and data gathering on the part of nations to track progress. Though a voluntary instrument, it includes provisions for monitoring efforts by governments to align their policies with its provisions.
"The efforts of so many over all these years are finally coming to fruition. The Code represents a significant international commitment to addressing the impacts of health workforce shortages on health systems in developing countries," said Francis Omaswa, President of the African Center for Health and Social Transformation, Founding Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance and co-chair of the Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council.
"For over four years, members of the Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council have been working for this day," said Peggy Clark, Executive Director of Global Health & Development at The Aspen Institute and head of the secretariat of the Advisory Council that supported the WHO in the process leading to the Code's adoption. "With the Code of Practice approved, we are eager to work with countries to ensure its implementation so that communities in Africa and elsewhere who have been hardest hit by the shortage of health professionals can receive the health care they need and deserve. The Code is an important guide for ethical action at the global, regional, national, and local level."
Mary Robinson and Francis Omaswa urge WHA to adopt Code of Practice for International Recruitment
The effects of health worker migration have been highlighted for many years and continue to seriously undermine efforts by developing nations to ensure adequate health care. Immense efforts are being made today to combat serious illnesses in the developing world. Yet, the success of this global effort hangs by a slender, and increasingly frayed thread-the catastrophic shortage of trained health professionals.
The reasons for this massive shortage are many: too few medical schools and teachers, fragile health systems where doctors and nurses struggle to make a difference and the powerful pull of better-paying jobs in the wealthiest nations that entice health professionals to leave their homelands in search of a better life.
The migration of health workers from poor countries to rich exacerbates these shortages. Africa carries close to 25 percent of the world's disease burden, yet has only 3 percent of the global workforce to address it. The effects of migration can devastate the capacity of developing nations to replenish their supply of urgently needed trained health workers. For example, according to a representative of Ghana's Health Ministry, in 2008 Ghana graduated 70 doctors from its publicly funded medical school, and 67 of them emigrated..
Solutions to the challenge of health worker migration should not include imposing draconian restrictions on the rights of workers to emigrate, nor ignore the legitimate interests of developing nations in ensuring mutual benefits from that migration. Instead, an ethical global framework is needed that addresses the realities of health worker migration and fairly recognizes the legitimate interests of health workers, source countries, and destination countries alike.
For more than four years, Realizing Rights and the members of its Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council have worked in close consultation with the WHO and the Global Health Workforce Alliance to develop a draft Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel.
The Code sets forth recommended actions for governments and private sector actors in the areas of ethical recruitment and workers rights to ensure that benefits of migration flow both to sending as well as receiving nations. For example, it provides good practice guidance around increasing health workforce production, expanding development assistance on the part of major donor nations to help source countries train and retain their health workers, and scaling up reporting and data gathering on the part of nations to track progress. The Code is an important guide for action at the global, regional, national, and local level and is a significant step forward in realizing the right to health.
We now stand at a historic moment of opportunity to make real progress in addressing the challenge of health worker migration. For the first time, there is broad inter-regional consensus on the draft Code of Practice. Last week in Madrid, 54 representatives from 32 countries came together for the Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council/Inter-Regional Dialogue. Every participant in that meeting expressed their strong support for the Code of Practice, and urged the global community to adopt it during the World Health Assembly in Geneva this week.
Adoption of the Code of Practice would be a critical first step in addressing the challenges posed by health worker migration. Once adopted, countries, both rich and poor, must work together to implement changes in recruitment practices, health worker production and retention, and targeted development assistance to countries hardest hit by out-migration of health workers. We must not let this opportunity be squandered.
Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, is currently president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Dr. Francis Omaswa is the president of the African Center for Health and Social Transformation, and Founding Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance
Action for Global Health welcomes the new Code of Practice on health workers. However, the voluntary nature of the Code leaves it vulnerable to dilution or being ignored. WHO members must respect its provisions fully if there is to be any chance of meeting the health Millennium Development Goals.
— Action for Global Health on 2010-06-01
i am intrested to serve for poor , rehabilited persons
— vk srivastava on 2010-06-08