CapacityPlus Helps Plan GHWA Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health

See update on this forum.

It’s been more than two years since the first-ever Global Forum on Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Kampala, Uganda. The global community continues to increase its awareness of the HRH crisis and actions to strengthen the health workforce. Many countries have made progress, but there is still a global shortage of over four million health workers. 

What has happened since Kampala, and where do we go from here? The Second Global Forum on HRH will take place on January 25-29, 2011, in Bangkok to review progress made on the Agenda for Global Action and renew commitments.

On May 14, James McCaffery, CapacityPlus deputy director for HRH/health systems strengthening, joined the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), World Health Organization, and a diverse group of partners on the International Organizing Committee in Geneva to assist in the planning of the Bangkok forum. The committee endorsed the overall conference themes, made strategic suggestions about the program draft, and discussed linkages between each parallel session and the plenary sessions.

Next steps are for session coordinators to reach out to possible contributors and prepare for a follow-up design meeting in late July. The core GHWA Steering Group will continue with more detailed plans.

Besides contributing to the planning, CapacityPlus is playing a leadership role with some of the parallel sessions. Director Maurice Middleberg is coordinating a session on the role of the private sector in education and health care, and McCaffery is coordinating a session on sustainable capacity-building for HRH policy and management.

The work of CapacityPlus is directly related to the six integrated strategies outlined in the Agenda for Global Action. The forum “is the most important HRH meeting over the next year,” says McCaffery, emphasizing its global scope.

Photo: Trevor Snapp