[afro-nets] Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health Conference - Call for Abstracts

["Tana Wuliji" <twuliji@varsity.co.nz>]

Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health Conference - Call for Abstracts
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22-23 March 2007
Geneva, Switzerland

A Call To Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health International Health Workforce Migration International Conference Centre

22-23 March 2007
Geneva, Switzerland

Introduction:

"A clear mandate has emerged for a global plan of action bringing forth national leadership backed by global solidarity" The World Health Report 2006.

World Health Day on 7 April, 2006 was dedicated to the global health care workforce shortage. In an effort to support and acknowledge the difficulty to build sustainable health systems with the instability of reliance on large scale emigration, the 2007 A Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health, will aim to address what we have done and what action steps we can take to solve this critical problem. With a multi-disciplinary focus, and a convening of global stakeholders, this meeting will stimulate discussion and spotlight evidence-based, pragmatic approaches to build, retain and sustain a workforce, both nationally and internationally. Policy implications will be addressed as well as promising practices for the hospital, the health care community and society. The meeting will link research, policy and action for global human resources for health. 

Desired Outcomes of Meeting

* Identification of a priority action and research agenda
* Creation of a global multi-stakeholder network to stimulate action and bridge the gap between current knowledge, hospitals/health systems research and policymaking
* Formation of between-nation work groups
* Development of summary report on interdisciplinary best practice initiatives from the meeting

Call for Abstracts

Deadline submission of abstracts should be by 8 September 2006 by email at
http://www.hret.org/hret/publications/ihwm.html or www.ihf-publications.org
or by fax to: +1 312 422 4568 or +33 450 42 6001.
Scientific & Planning Committee

Themes/Topic Tracks:

I. The Health Worker: a National and Global Profile "WHO estimates there to be a total of 59.2 million full-time paid health workers worldwide" The World Health Report 2006

This track will seek to define health care workers in all their diversity, their environment, their size, distribution, characteristics, their costs and migration drivers and patterns. Topics will include:

* Data collection methods and limitations – Are data sets evidence-based?
* Migrating professionals as agents for exchange of skills/culture, etc.
* The voice of the migrant health professional (National migrant associations)
* Current policies and achievements

II. Strategies to Develop, Sustain and Retain an Effective Health Workforce: Global and National Perspectives “The chasm is widening between what can be done and what is happening on the ground.” The World Health Report 2006

This track will set the scene with reports by profession, destination/source country to explore strategies to develop, sustain, and retain high-performing health workers for health systems. Topics will include:

*  Reasons for attrition and health worker’s satisfaction
*  Evidence-based best practices
*  The role of foreign aid and government
*  Human Resource Planning – Methods, self-sufficiency

III. Ethical Hiring Practices: A Dialogue Between Nations and Health Worker Professions “The growing international nature of the health workforce related to the flows of migrants, relief workers and volunteers calls for cooperative agreements to protect the rights and safety of workers and to enhance the adoption of ethical recruitment practices” The World Health Report 2006

This track will present a dialogue between nations and professions to analyze current recruitment trends, sustainable solutions and their impact on the global market. Topics will include, for example:
 
*  Current codes and practices in recruitment
*  Strategies for successful integration of migration professionals
*  Open Market practices – negative and positive impacts
*  Return Migration: Obstacles and possible solutions

Tana Wuliji, Pharmacist
Project Coordinator
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
PO Box 84200
2508AE Den Haag
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-70-302-1970
Fax: +31-70-3021999
Website: http://www.fip.org 
Email: mailto:tana@fip.org 

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global federation of national organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists dedicated to improving the access to and value of appropriate medicine use worldwide, and contributing to changes in science, practice and health policies worldwide.