PHA-Exchange> [afro-nets] Health Workers Initiative

[Claudio Schuftan]

Health Workers Initiative
-------------------------
From: Paul Davis <pdavis at healthgap.org>


Dear colleagues,

Over the last three weeks - over 150 NGOs and experts from every
continent have quickly come on board to give a ringing endorse-
ment of this urgent call for a new initiative to strengthen the
health workforce of AIDS impacted countries.

Clearly, with an initiative this ambitious, and a complex crisis
in need of major sustained action, we will need the strongest
show of endorsement possible.

If your organization has not yet endorsed this important new
initiative, please join groups like Treatment Action Campaign in
South Africa, Global Health Council and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the United States, TASO in Uganda, TTAG in Thailand,
and hundreds of others worldwide and send your organizational
endorsements as soon as possible!

If you already have endorsed the call, we are asking you to take
the Next step to strengthen our joint plea for a bold new health
systems initiative: please circulate the platform your organiza-
tion endorsed to *your* networks with a new cover letter asking
your allies to endorse and make us stronger.

We are concentrating on organizational endorsements for now, al-
though government officials and national or international opin-
ion leaders are also welcome and appreciated.

We need every group of PLWHAs, health providers, students, ac-
tivists, And academics. We need people from every part of every
state in the United States, every other nation that either im-
ports or exports health workers from the global South. National
and international, state and local -- all of these groups make
us stronger.

And lord knows, we need all the help we can get. Together, we
can win.

The platform pasted below. Thank you for all you do.

Please send endorsements to Paul Davis Health GAP (Global Access
Project) mailto:pdavis at healthgap.org

--
Urgent Call for U.S. Initiative on Health Workforce in AIDS-
Impacted Countries

(January 1 2006)

The critical shortage of health care workers and weak health
systems is the key bottleneck to scaling up access to AIDS
treatment= . While the needs of individual countries must be de-
termined locally, Experts estimate that sub-Saharan Africa needs
at least 1 million new health Workers to meet essential health
needs. Sustained commitment and creative action are necessary to
develop and support the health workforce needed to secure the
right to health and achieve universal access to AIDS treatment
by 2010, as well as other international health goals.

We urge the President of the United States and Members of Con-
gress to lead a global health workforce initiative in AIDS rav-
aged countries. The U.S. should:

1. Invest significant new resources in a number of impoverished
countries to recruit, train, support, and effectively utilize
the number of health workers needed to achieve universal access
to AIDS treatment for all in need by 2010 and universal access
to primary health care by 2015, while supporting a new G8 ini-
tiative to assist additional countries. The U.S. should contrib-
ute 1/3 of the funds needed, approximately $650 million in 2007
and scaling up over ensuing years. The U.S. contributions should
support national human resource plans within the context of com-
prehensive country health plans that improve health systems per-
formance to achieve sustainable results. Funding should be pre-
dictable and long-term, flowing directly to the public sector
and local NGO and faith-based care providers as appropriate. The
U.S. should also support effective regional and global initia-
tives.

The U.S. should invest in (a) long-term strategic planning; (b)
strengthening and expanding capacity of health training institu-
tions; (c) retaining health workers through adequate compensa-
tion, safe and Improved work conditions, stronger supervision,
continuing education, and care including AIDS treatment; (d) hu-
man resource and fiscal management; (e) equitable distribution
including incentives to work in underserved areas; (f) re-
deploying unemployed health workers.

2. Cover costs to public health systems of implementing PEPFAR
and other U.S. initiatives. U.S. agencies should support train-
ing and retention for at least the number of indigenous health
workers necessary to meet program goals. Aggressive proactive
measures must be adopted to avoid drawing from other local
health priorities or programs.

3. Launch a substantial community health worker initiative to
train, compensate, and deploy community members, especially
women and PLWHA, to provide basic care, treatment, prevention
services, and referrals. Community health workers should have
access to care, including AIDS treatment, and be offered a ca-
reer pathway. The program should be integrated into primary
health systems, and ensure adequate supervision, support, and
ongoing training.

4. Reduce brain drain by increasing the number of U.S. health
Professional graduates and improving U.S. health worker distri-
bution. The U.S. government and professional health communities
should expand training opportunities in the U.S., discourage ac-
tive recruitment from poor nations, and work with developing and
developed countries and international organizations to develop
migration and recruitment policies that mutually benefit source
and destination countries. Some experts estimate that the U.S.
will need to increase the annual number of medical school gradu-
ates by at least 5,000 and of nursing graduates by at least
25,000 over the next 10-15 years.

5. Create new possibilities for U.S. and diaspora health workers
to Serve abroad to help meet immediate care and treatment needs
while providing training and support to strengthen health sys-
tems. The U.S. should develop programs in cooperation with local
governments, prioritize strengthening local institutions, and
support South-South exchanges.

6. Convene and support country-level teams of all stakeholders
to devise And implement coordinated plans to achieve universal
access to health services. The U.S. should provide technical as-
sistance and facilitate the country team's access to all neces-
sary sources of external funding. Cross-sectoral country-level
planning is necessary to promote national ownership, donor coor-
dination, and cross-sectoral planning and harmonization.

7. Contribute 1/3 of the predicted need of the Global Fund to
fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, for both the coming year
and, gradually, a sum equivalent to an additional year to alle-
viate donor shortfalls and Enable more ambitious applications.
Health systems strengthening must be Sustained as a category of
GFATM financing.

8. Reform IMF-supported spending and wage policies that limit
national And donor investments in health and education. Barriers
to access such as user-fees for health and education should be
eliminated. The U.S. should provide funds to compensate for lost
revenue and support increased utilization of services.

9. Remove Congressional and agency limits to funding recurrent
expenses, salaries, and sectorwide approaches, and allow flexi-
bility to agencies seeking to strengthen health systems and
scale-up access to care and prevention.
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