Health worker migration has been increasing worldwide over the past decades, especially from lower income countries whose health systems are already very fragile. To address this situation, the World Health Assembly adopted resolutions which called for the development of a Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. In January 2009, the WHO Executive Board discussed a first draft of a Code of Practice, but requested further consultation among Member States, including through discussion by regional committees.
Since then, all six regional WHO committees discussed the key issues related to the Code of Practice. The Medicus Mundi International Network submitted a statement
<http://www.medicusmundi.org/en/contributions/news/2009/international-recruitment-of-health-personnel to the meeting of the European WHO committee in September.
Now, a new draft - and a related report by the WHO secretariat - is available on the WHO website. The issue is put on the agenda of the next WHO Executive Board meeting <http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_eb126.htmlin January 2010: The Board is "invited to consider the revised draft code of practice with a view to its submission to the Sixty-third World Health Assembly", in May 2010.
Stronger than the first draft
In its report the WHO Executive Board, the WHO Secretariat points out that the revised draft is stronger than the previous one:
Two core themes identified by the regional committees and incorporated in the revised draft code were that Member States should strive to achieve a balance between the rights, obligations and expectations of source countries, destination countries and migrant health personnel, and that international health worker migration should have a net positive impact on the health system of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. To this end, Article 5 on mutuality of benefits has been strengthened. The revised draft text emphasizes that international health personnel should be recruited in a way that seeks to prevent a drain on valuable human resources for health.
In accordance with the views expressed by some regional committees, it also recommends that countries should abstain from active international recruitment of health personnel unless equitable bilateral, regional, or multilateral agreement(s) exist to support such recruitment activities.
In addition, voluntary technical and financial mechanisms to strengthen the development of health systems in developing countries and countries with economies in transition are proposed in Article 11.
The revised draft code also recommends that Member States should seek to strengthen the balance between the rights of health personnel to leave their countries and the right of everybody to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health in order to mitigate the negative effects of migration on health systems.
In accordance with the discussion in some regional committees, the revised draft code also recommends strengthening the provision on self-sustainability by stating that Member States should, to the extent possible, strive to meet their health personnel needs from their own health workforce. In order to make national health workforces sustainable, the revised draft code includes new provisions recommending that Member States consider a variety of measures to retain health workers. (Source: WHO)
We are rather happy with the revised content - and you?
The modifications in the text of the Code are in line with the proposed amendments and suggestions the representative of the Medicus Mundi International Network made in her statement to the Regional Committee of Europe in September. So we are rather happy with the revised draft.
As an NGO in official relations with the WHO, the Medicus Mundi International Network is invited to the WHO Executive Board meeting in January and has already appointed a representative. NGOs in official relations are also permitted to request the WHO EB Chairman to submit a statement related to a technical issue. MMI intends to make a statement regarding the international recruitment of health personnel and the draft global code of practice, following up our previous suggestions.
In order to prepare this statement, we invite MMI Network members and others who are interested in this issue to have a close look at the revised draft and to let us know their opinion.
WHO EB meeting, January 2010: Report by Secretariat and draft code (PDF) <http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB126/B126_8-en.pdf
WHO documentation including background paper<http://www.who.int/hrh/migration/migration/en/index.html
MMI Statement at WHO EURO, September 2009<http://www.medicusmundi.org/en/contributions/news/2009/international-recruitment-of-health-personnel
WHO Task Force: Health Worker Migration Policy Initiative<http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/about/taskforces/migration
--
Thomas Schwarz
Basel
mailto:mmsoffice@medicusmundi.ch