Outcome of the 5th Global Forum

5th Global Forum Programme

What policies and practices to recruit, retain, reskill, and support health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic should inform future workforce development?

Health and care services are labour intensive, and the health and care workforce is essential to their effective delivery and to achieving universal health coverage, health security and the sustainable development goals. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated longstanding health and care workforce challenges that pose ongoing threats to health systems worldwide, such as shortages, maldistribution in rural and other underserved areas and insufficient skill-mix. Yet, it also brought the health and care workforce to the forefront of the policy agenda and sparked rapid innovation and policy adoption, showing that changes to and improvement upon the status quo are possible.

What can intersectoral governance do to strengthen the health and care workforce?: Structures and mechanisms to improve the education, employment and retention of health and care workers

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the capacity of different sectors to come together to achieve remarkable outcomes. The lessons generated are key to informing post-pandemic health systems policy. They offer powerful evidence on how best to work across sectors to educate, employ and retain a sustainable health and care workforce to deliver on the ambitions of universal health coverage, health security and the Sustainable Development Goals. This brief provides insights on policies and practices that worked and which could be taken up by governments.

What steps can improve and promote investment in the health and care workforce?: Enhancing efficiency of spending and rethinking domestic and international financing

The lessons of resource mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic show what is possible. There is an urgent need for countries and international actors to apply those lessons to secure sufficient funding for health and care workforce education, employment and retention. Investment needs to 2030 are negligible in comparison to government spending during COVID-19. There is powerful evidence that developing a sustainable health and care workforce will help deliver on the ambitions of universal health coverage, health security and the Sustainable Development Goals and to generate exceptional dividends and co-benefits.

Three Action briefs were co-developed by civil society organizations (CSO) and wider networks to frame discussions on the advocacy agenda at the Forum and beyond. The action briefs highlight key actions and a collective agenda for civil society, on the topics below and linked with each of the three evidence-based Policy briefs from WHO and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic: recruiting, retaining and supporting health and care workers

Leveraging intersectoral governance to improve education, employment and retention of health and care workers

Enhancing domestic and international financing for investments in the health and care workforce

Better understand health labour markets

Global health and care workers: Stock, distribution and shortage

Competency-based education

Decent work

 Nurses and midwives: Critical components to achieve universal health coverage

WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel

The Working for Health partnership is a joint Multi-partner Trust Fund (MPTF) initiative between the World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to optimize, build and strengthen the health and care workforce. Working for Health provides catalytic flexible funding and technical support to implement the Working for Health 2022-2030 Action Plan.