WHO/Europe introduces sustainable health workforce toolkit at Dublin Forum
WHO
More than 1000 leaders, planners and practitioners from the health, labour, education and finance sectors gathered at the Fourth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Dublin, Ireland, on 13–17 November 2017. Together they promoted innovations for building a health workforce for the future.
WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, in her statement at the opening plenary, observed, “This is the global truth: to meet population health challenges, and to sustain universal health coverage, workforces must be transformed in terms of skills mix, competencies, team composition and – in some cases – location, management and regulation.”
She continued, “To achieve this transformation, we must shift the policy focus from regarding the health workforce as a cost, to understanding that investment in the workforce will have a positive return in terms of the health, wealth and well-being of people.”
Delegates at the Forum endorsed the Dublin Declaration to show their collective commitment to developing the health workforce required to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Developing a sustainable health workforce in the WHO European Region
WHO/Europe used the opportunity of the Forum to present the first version of a toolkit developed to support Member States in their efforts to create a fit-for-purpose and sustainable health workforce that can address current and future health needs. It presented this new resource at a working session on 15 November to a gathering of policy-makers, investors, leaders and planners.
The toolkit provides structured access to planning tools, case studies and evidence. It will support countries’ implementation of the framework for action towards a sustainable health workforce, adopted at the 67th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in September 2017.
