[afro-nets] Global Conversation on HRH Priorities - starting Monday 9 September

Dear AFRO-nets colleagues,

JOIN US FOR A GLOBAL CONVERSATION ON HRH PRIORITIES
Sponsored by Global Health Workforce Alliance and HIFA2015

Ahead of the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health [10-13 November, Recife, Brazil] and in our efforts to promote multi stakeholder engagement, the Global Health Workforce Alliance and HIFA2015 are hosting a global conversation on the priorities in Human Resources for Health (HRH). These discussions will take place here on the HIFA2015 email discussion forum commencing September 9. Join here: www.hifa2015.org

The main objectives of the conversation are to:
- Offer the opportunity for engagement in the lead up to the Forum and to start to explore some of the key issues.
- Enable the inclusion of the voices of stakeholders worldwide who may not be able to attend the 3rd Global Forum in person: all comments will be taken into consideration and a summary of the discussions will be presented at the 3rd Global Forum.
- Enable capture of key points from the above, thereby providing wider experiential input into the Global Forum.
- Stimulate increased sense of momentum and excitement as we approach the Global Forum.
- Widen the audience for GHWA to make commitments, announcements or statements before, during, or after the Forum.
- Encourage WHO country offices to describe their progress and challenges with regards to country-specific HRH commitments.
- Raise awareness of the HRH commitment process.
Elicit new HRH commitments in the lead up to the Forum.

FORMAT
One new question will be the focus for discussion each week - for the next 5 weeks. Although the focus is on individual questions each week, we welcome contributions on any question at any time. The discussions will be housed in the context of various issues affecting HRH, e.g education, incentives (non-financial), retention, skills mix, health worker availability, accessibility and acceptability etc. We have put together a brief introduction to some of the priority issues. This will be circulated as a separate message and is available here:
http://www.hifa2015.org/wp-content/uploads/Background-Document-on-HRH-priorities.pdf
. Please keep it as a reference for the discussions over the coming weeks. Throughout the discussions, we encourage responses that promote an integrated, systems-thinking approach to HRH development, recognizing the inter-dependence and synergy among the different areas of health workforce development. We look forward to your observations and recommendations on how better to support and strengthen the health workforce as the foundation for Universal Health Coverage.

QUESTIONS
Week 1: What have been the notable achievements in Human Resources for Health towards Universal Health Coverage - globally and/or in your country - over the past 10 years? What has worked? Share examples of success where appropriate.
Week 2: What are the notable failures? What has been done that hasn’t worked?
Week 3: What, in your opinion are the opportunities and challenges/obstacles in the “systems thinking” approach to HRH, as
proposed by the GHWA/WHO framework [ http://tinyurl.com/lrym5l7 ] ­ which is the bassis for eliciting multi-stakeholder commitments? What are your suggestions for overcoming these obstacles? (Examples of success stories/best practices are welcome)
Week 4: What needs to be done (and why) over the *next* 10 years, and by whom?
Week 5: What will you and/or your organization do to help address the HRH crisis in the next 10 years?

We invite and encourage you to actively engage in this global conversation, which will serve to add further impetus to discussions in Recife. Let’s together rise to the grand challenge of ensuring that all people everywhere have access to a skilled, motivated and supported health worker, within a robust health system.

Please forward this message widely and invite people to join HIFA2015 here:
www.hifa2015.org

Sonali Reddy / GHWA Advocacy and Communications
Giorgio Cometto /Adviser to the Executive Director at GHWA
Neil Pakenham-Walsh/ coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network

HIFA profile: Sonali Reddy is Advocacy and Communications Officer at the Global Health Workforce Alliance- GHWA/WHO in Switzerland. reddys AT who.int

HIFA profile: Giorgio Cometto is Adviser to the Executive Director at the Global Health Workforce Alliance- GHWA/WHO in Switzerland. comettog AT who.int

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network. He is also currently chair of the Dgroups Foundation (www.dgroups.info), a partnership of 18 international development organisations promoting dialogue for international health and development. He started his career as a hospital doctor in the UK, and has clinical experience as an isolated health worker in rural Ecuador and Peru. For the last 20 years he has been committed to the global challenge of improving the availability and use of relevant, reliable healthcare information for health workers and citizens in low- and middle-income countries. He is particularly interested in the potential of inclusive, interdisciplinary communication platforms to help address global health and international development challenges. He has worked with the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Medicine Digest and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications). He is based near Oxford, UK.
http://www.hifa2015.org
mailto:neil.pakenham-walsh@ghi-net.org