The Working for Health action plan draft does not reflect critical elements of Human Resources for Health (HRH) funding and health workers’ rights from the 2017-2021 action plan, the 2016 ComHEEG recommendations and lessons from the pandemic.

We urge Member States to include “taxation and governance reforms” for HRH financing and fiscal space for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in line with their 2016 political commitment.

The current Action Plan’s theory of change does not include social dialogue. We urge Member States to emphasise the importance of all health and care workers’ labour rights. 

We welcome the Global Health and Care Worker Compact. But most of the substantive elements of the “Care Compact” are only recommendatory. We urge Member States to develop or review national laws and policy frameworks to ensure full uptake of the Compact’s letter and spirit. 

We are concerned about increasing health worker migration from countries with critical shortages and call on Member States to abide by principles of fair and ethical recruitment. Bilateral agreements grounded in the WHO Code and international labor standards are indispensable in ensuring rights-based, socially responsible, and sustainable governance of health sector labor migration. Such agreements must include active Joint Implementation Committees that involve unions in both origin and destination countries. 

We observe improved reporting of national data. This likely contributes to an exaggerated sense of progress in addressing the 18 million projected worldwide shortfall of health workers by 2030 in the 2015 Global strategy on Human Resources for Health. 

Health systems’ privatisation makes health workers’ working conditions precarious. Safe and effective staffing for health based on decent work requires strengthening and adequate funding for universal public health systems. 

Finally, it is important to promote and verify uniformity, comparability, and harmonisation within diagnostic health care paths at all levels to protect health professionals in hematology.

Signatories

• Public Services International (PSI)

• Medicus Mundi International (MMI)

• International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO)

• KNCB Tuberculosis Foundation 

• International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN)

• International Council for Standardisation in Haematology (ICSH)

• L’Organisation pour la Prévention de la Cécité (OPC)

• International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science (IFBLS)