Health Workforce

There is now abundant evidence demonstrating that the progress in health of many countries will not be possible without the workforce, which is essential for strong national health systems. There are still widespread shortages, with a gap of 4.2 million health workers, according the World Health Report of 2006. Uneven distribution still deprives many groups of essential services, often life-saving ones. The international migration of health workers in the open labour market has compounded the issue of shortages in many developing countries – from which skilled labour is drawn. The workforce crisis needs to be overcome if health systems are to be strengthened and the collapse of health systems averted.

Consequently, we work with member countries to help them manage health workforce migration through the Commonwealth Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health Workers. This Code has been widely disseminated and we continue to work with countries to raise awareness of the code and to deepen its implementation (click here to read full text of code).

Our work focuses on:

• Enhancing the dissemination and implementation of the Commonwealth Code of Practice. We have organised regional workshops to inform different groups about the code, engaged with professional associations and health regulation councils, made presentations at different international fora and engaged with different partners to promote the code’s implementation.
• Participating in the development of international policy instruments such as the development of the global code of practice for international recruitment of health workers and report on scaling up the production of health workers and informing and supporting the engagement of member states in these processes – through high level dialogue and publications.
• Developing policies for the managed migration of health workers more suited to small states.
• Researching migration trends in the Commonwealth and promoting policies for return migration – through dialogues and publications. Research findings are shared with member countries and some will be published.