Round table on international recruitment of health personnel: How to do it, if not by stealing
Bern, 24 September 2009, organized by Medicus Mundi Switzerland and the Medicus Mundi International Network.
Rich countries recruit directly or indirectly qualified staff from low and middle income countries in order to secure their health care systems. In the countries of origin, the international migration of health workers often has a negative impact, deepening the crisis of the national health system. In order to address this challenge and to set some international standards and guidelines, the World Health Organization is developing a global code of practice of international recruitment of health workers*.
In stakeholder consultations and in the regional WHO meetings (Europe: September 2009), the WHO members and the international community are invited to contribute to the development of the international code of practice – and to develop own, regional or national guidelines.
The members of the Network Medicus Mundi Switzerland expect the Swiss government and administration (mainly the Federal Office for Health and the Swiss Development Cooperation) to play an active and positive role in this process, and to develop clear and constructive positions and policies in the key issues related to health workforce migration such as:
- Destination countries of workforce migration should strive to create a self-sufficient national health workforce and work toward establishing effective health workforce planning that will reduce or even preclude their need to recruit migrant health personnel.
- Destination countries of workforce migration must compensate the value of transferred wealth via direct financial and technical support to the affected countries and health systems. This support should clearly contribute to a reduction in the push factors in order to make it more attractive for health workers to stay in their respective countries.
Round table: The programme
- Round of introduction
- Kaspar Wyss, Swiss Tropical Institute
Introduction to the global code of practice and the two key issues of self-sufficiency and compensation - Thomas Schwarz, Medicus Mundi International
Position of Medicus Mundi International related to the global code of practice and the two key issues (statement submitted to the September session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe) - Discussion with Gaudenz Silberschmidt, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), Andreas Loebell, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and participants from Switzerland and other European countries (members of the Medicus Mundi Switzerland and Medicus Mundi International Networks).
Round table: What you need to know
- Date and time: Thursday, 24 September 2009, 3.15 – 5.15 PM. The round table is followed by an aperitif. An Executive Board meeting of the Medicus Mundi International Network will take place the following day, 25 September 2009, in Basel, Switzerland
- Venue: Swiss Red Cross, Rainmattstrasse 10, Bern, Switzerland
- How to get there: http://map.search.ch/bern/rainmattstr.10
- Language: English – no translation available
- Registration deadline: 20 September 2009 (e-mail or phone call). Registration is free
- Contact and further information: Martin Leschhorn (mleschhorn@medicusmundi.ch)
or Thomas Schwarz (office@medicusmundi.org) - WHO documentation on health workforce migration and retention, including draft code of practice on the international recruitment of health workers: www.who.int/hrh/migration
- Medicus Mundi International: Statement to the 59th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, on agenda item 7(c), Health workforce policies in the WHO European Region including International recruitment of health personnel: draft global code of practice, delivered by Mariska Meurs on Wednesday 16 September 2009: PDF file - MMI news release - input by Thomas Schwarz (PPT as PDF)
- MMI electronic platform: Human resources for health
- Download invitation / programme: PDF
