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WHO urges boosting investments in midwives, nurses in 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) urged all countries to invest in midwives and nurses in view of the key role played by them in providing health services.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “nurses and midwives are the backbone of every health system: in 2020 we’re calling on all countries to invest in nurses and midwives as part of their commitment to health for all.”
The world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
Nurses and midwives are the people who devote their lives to caring for mothers and children; giving lifesaving immunizations and health advice; looking after older people and generally meeting everyday essential health needs. They are often, the first and only point of care in their communities.
That’s why the World Health Assembly has designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.
The WHO joined hands with its partners including, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), International Council of Nurses (ICN), Nursing Now and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to spearhead a year-long effort to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, highlight the challenging conditions they often face, and advocate for increased investments in the nursing and midwifery workforce.
Health systems can only function with health workers; improving health service coverage and realizing the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is dependent on their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality.
The WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries. However, countries at all levels of socioeconomic development face, to varying degrees, difficulties in the education, employment, deployment, retention, and performance of their workforce.
The chronic under-investment in education and training of health workers in some countries and the mismatch between education and employment strategies in relation to health systems and population needs are contributing to continuous shortages. These are compounded by difficulties in deploying health workers to rural, remote and under-served areas. Moreover, the increasing international migration of health workers may exacerbate health workforce shortfalls, particularly in low- and lower-middle income countries. Human resources for health information systems are often weak to take stock of selected health workers from the public sector.
In some countries, challenges in universal access to health workers may also result from the lack of capacity by the public sector to absorb the supply of health workers due to budgetary constraints. As a result, some countries face the paradox of health worker unemployment co-existing with major unmet health needs.
The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth identified six pathways by which investments in the health and social workforce can spur inclusive economic growth. The health workforce has a vital role in building the resilience of communities and health systems to respond to disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards, as well as related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks. 70% of the health and social workforce are women and investing in the health workforce is an opportunity to create decent employment opportunities, in particular for women and youth.
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