The ‘Great Resignation’ of women health workers is impacting women and health systems globally, with a concerning ‘Great Migration’ trend. This exodus exacerbates the existing health worker shortage crisis, affecting countries striving to achieve universal health coverage.The report published in October 2023 by Women in Global Health explores these issues in depth and calls for gender-transformative solutions to address workforce imbalances.
Countries competing for increasingly scarce trained health workers challenge the principles of global solidarity and ethical international recruitment, enshrined in global agreements like the WHO Code (WHO Code on the Practice of International Recruitment of Health Personnel)
"The WHO Code encourages all member states to act in solidarity, produce sufficient health workers domestically and invest in supporting countries with vulnerable health systems to strengthen their health workforce"
Replacing domestic health workers with international recruits may just be putting new recruits into the same broken systems that caused the domestic health workers to leave. Coordinated action by governments is needed urgently to address health worker attrition in the short term and plan longer term to fill health worker shortages sustainably without reliance on unethical international recruitment.
The central role played by women health workers in the pandemic, along with the health and psychological impacts they endured in the course of their work, has placed a spotlight on their needs. Gender transformational change is needed to fix health workforce inequities and retain and attract back the women who are leaving.
Women in the health workforce need a new social contract based on equal leadership, safe, decent and fairly paid work, to enable them to deliver health for all.
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