PHM-Exch> International recruitment of health personnel: Progress towards a stronger WHO code of practice

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Thomas Schwarz Basel mmsoffice at medicusmundi.ch

  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.html>in 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>
** *
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