This new “Memorandum of Understanding” will see the organisations work closely together across the next three years to create policy-relevant research on workforce and healthcare equity topics and capacity development for our members.

At the launch event, held during PSI’s APRECON conference, Institute director Dr Revati Phalkey said: "In the current context of public health services being rapidly eroded by austerity, debt, and privatisation, it is critical that those of us working towards more just and equitable health systems come together and leverage our strengths. At the centre of this is the health and care workforce - the backbone of universal health coverage. This memorandum of understanding is not solely a framework for institutional collaboration, but a step towards cultivating spaces of shared responsibility and solidarity in protecting public commons, safeguarding public health services, and upholding the rights, dignity, and interests of the health and care workers, mostly women, who are delivering them. Over the next three years UNU-IIGH is committed to work with PSI and its affiliates towards this shared vision."

UNU-IIGH is a global research institute of the United Nations which collaborates with UN agencies, governments and key stakeholders in international health/

This latest partnership builds on PSI's role as the global trade union voice for over 14 million health and care sector workers the world over and our position as Global Union Federation with official relations at the World Health Organization. The research produced will enable health sector unions to better shape international health policy, including through PSI's voice on the governing bodies of the WHO.

Daniel Bertossa, the PSI General Secretary, expressed the importance of the collaboration for PSI affiliates and members of our unions, thus:

“Health workers are the backbone of the healthcare delivery system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments applauded them. We all clapped for them. The pandemic reinforced the fact that health is central to life itself and the need for health equity cannot be overemphasised. It also showed that beyond empty applause, governments do not pay the needed attention to ensure adequate numbers of health and care workers, and decent work in the sector. Cuts in public funding, privatisation, and attacks on trade union and labour rights in the sector are challenges that our affiliates face across the world today. We are fighting back. And in this fightback, we need allies who share our vision and are committed to take concrete steps that can lead to fundamental changes worldwide and in our different countries. UNU-IIGH is a worthwhile ally. This collaboration is not simply between the UNU-IIGH and the PSI Head Office. It is being entered into on behalf of our affiliate worldwide and for the cause of a better world where quality health for all is more than a slogan or aspiration."