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World Health Report 2006: Draft Outline

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Anonymous

As the World health report 2006 (WHR2006) will open World Health Day 2006, which is also expected to launch the Heath Workforce Decade (2006-2015), the Report will offer scientific and policy support for the Day and Decade. The Day will energize relevant constituencies to celebrate health workers around the world. The follow-up activities of the Decade will focus on implementing and evaluating policies and strategies for workforce development. Both the Day and the Decade will emphasize global responsibility for health workforce issues.

As WHR2006 is the premier report of WHO, it should be evidence- based, of superior technical quality, and foundational for the field. WHR2006 should aim to achieve excellence and a durable shelf- life.

As WHR2006 aims to mobilize broad constituencies, WHR 2006 should adopt an expansive, inclusive, and participatory approach - drawing from, engaging with and inviting contributions from diverse communities within and beyond the WHO-including NGOs and the private sector -even as authority for the Report remains with WHO.

As WHR2006 is intended to attract key audiences, especially national health leaders, the Report should not be afraid of tackling complexity or controversy, and setting out policy and strategic frameworks for change across the spectrum of health workforce development.

WHR2006 is set in an ongoing framework of initiatives in health workforce development that have taken place in the past (e.g. primary health care), the present (JLI, HLF) and will take place in the future. While it is the future that we wish to highlight, it is important to learn the lessons of history and of research.

WORKING FOR HEALTH

The title of the Report should convey the core messages; preliminary titles will change over time; subthemes may be interwoven into the major storyline.

Core Messages

Proposed core messages are as follows:

* Health workers are crucially important for producing good health through the performance of health systems; they constitute a significant share of the labour force and perform key social roles in all societies.

* Health for All, Primary Health Care and Millennium Development Goals are not achievable without an appropriately prepared, deployed and supported health workforce.

* Good health depends also on good governance and stewardship of the health labour market, and country leadership is the key to sustainable HRH development.

* Significantly increased and strategically placed investment of international and domestic funds in education, planning and management of the health workforce is crucial for achieving equityoriented national health goals.

Contribution of Health Workforce to Functions and Goals of Health Systems

Confronting global health challenges and achieving health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) require health systems to be strengthened. The health systems comprise all organizations, institutions and resources that produce actions whose primary purpose is to improve health. This is achieved through the main functions of the systems: the delivery of services, the generation of resources, financing and stewardship. Central to all these functions are the people who deliver the services, and those who make the health system functional as a major resource of the health systems. As the institutional context of health policy-making and health services has changed, government responsibilities and objectives in the health sector have been refined, with increasingly pluralist systems. As with all resources, balanced and adequate provision and efficient use of human resources is crucial; this challenges the changing role of the State as the stewards of the health systems. WHR2006 explores the contribution of the health workforce to the functions and goals of the health systems through the States functions.

WHR2006 opens by presenting health workers worldwide in their diversity, and acknowledges their significance for health, in both the labour force and their societal roles. Workers are the most powerful resource for producing good health; they constitute 1 in 20 employed workers in the global economy, and their dedicated service is recognized in all societies. But health work is carried out in an ever-changing world, and this will be explored as a background to workforce development. The future will be shaped by changing demography, epidemiology, health system, household structure and consumer preferences. Navigating that future will be guided by a supply-demand framework managing labour market, where the state role is to augment public service delivery with information, regulation and financing to guide the private sector and complex public- private mixes.

Strategic planning and management actions should focus on three core health objectives. The first is investing in people, especially pre-service education and in-service training. The second is enhancing the performance of public and private health systems, especially harmonizing health workers in vertical disease and health systems activities. The third is to promote equity by correcting skillmix imbalances, geographical misdistribution and inequitable international migration.

The WHR2006 will provide the scientific foundation for the issues and challenges of the health workforce today and in the future, and the strategies to address them. It will focus on key objectives and functions of HRH strategic planning and management, including the changing role of the states. The Report will recommend concrete targets over the coming decade of human resources for health. Integrated into the "roadmap" chapters will be worker voices, stories, cases; HIV/AIDS; best practices; special situations such as post-conflict; key roles for donors and agencies; and research and knowledge priorities.

Global Profile of Health Workers

WHR2006 will offer the first-ever global profile of all workers whose primary purpose is the production of good health. Projections will highlight the rapid growth of private medical education and private health services, underscoring the shifting state roles of navigating labour markets through information, regulation and financing. WHR2006 will underscore strategies for improving investments in education and training, enhancing the performance of public and private sectors, and combating inequities associated with inappropriate skill-mix and maldistribution.

The Report will provide new evidence on the impact of human resources on health outcomes, through subnational analysis in a number of countries, highlighting the inequity in the distribution of health workers. The responses of health systems and the workforce to clients' expectations will be supported by an analysis of the responsiveness module of the World Health Survey and other surveys.

The implications of priority disease programmes and global funding mechanisms on human resources will be also highlighted in the Report through country case studies and analysis. The role of the state in the context of macroecononomic policies and public sector reforms will also be discussed.

New Data and analysis

WHR2006 will be based on new quantitative data from the WHO registry, national censuses and labour force and sample surveys; gender analysis and time use; HRH financing from national health accounts; core HRH indicators; and the World Health Survey. Qualitative information will include historical assessments, worker profiles and voices, and mapping of regulations. Scenario building exercises will also be presented. Country cases will feature lessons learnt and national success stories.

Courtesy : World Health Organisation

World Health Report 2006 will offer the first ever global profile of all workers whose primary purpose is the production of good health. Projections will highlight the rapid growth of private medical education and private health services, underscoring the shifting state roles of navigating labour markets through information, regulation and financing.

Copyright Trained Nurses' Association of India Mar 2006

Source: Nursing Journal of India

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