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2006

WHO Regional meeting advocates the set up of national observatories for human health resources

The Regional Meeting on Establishment of Regional and National Observatory for Human Resources for Health as part of the Health System Observatory was held in Muscat, Oman (16-18 December 2006). The WHO meeting discussed and identified steps to establish national Human Resources for Health (HRH) observatories for the WHO Member States of the region. The Observatory aims to support and promote evidence-based Human Resources for Health (HRH) policy-making; strengthen the knowledge base and use of information in HRH for policy and decision-making as well as increase capacity in evaluating & monitoring the HR situation & trends in health system reform. 

Along with advocating for human resources for health, the three-day meeting served as an ideal platform for participants to share experiences on the collection of HRH national data utilizing the WHO templates and tools and deliberated upon measures needed to be adopted for institutionalizing the process of managing the data.  The meeting hosted by the Ministry of Health (MoH), Oman was attended by relevant focal points from 20 countries of the Region along with representation from WHO Headquarters and the Eastern Mediterranean Region. 

Delivering the message of Dr Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director, Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dr El Fatih El Samani, WHO Representative of Oman stated that, “an insufficient and imbalanced health workforce continues to be a major constraint in attaining health targets. Experience to date has highlighted the need for urgent action to scale up human resources for health, which will require coordinated action of countries and all other partners at all levels. Effective action, both urgent and sustained, requires solid information, reliable analysis and a firm knowledge base. A culture of science-based knowledge building must, therefore, be infused into the human resources community.”

The meeting highlighted that the establishment of observatories for health workforce is well in line with this year’s World Health Day theme and the priority set by WHO for the coming decade 2006-2015, which is devoted to addressing human resource development issues. “Human resource development, as one of the key functions and building blocks, of the health system is now the focus of attention at the global, regional and national levels, stated Dr Belgacem Sabri, Director, Department of Health Systems and Services Development, WHO/EMRO. “There is enough evidence that health systems and health system strengthening do matter. We therefore need to invest in capacity development through the application of the WHO analytical tools - national health accounts, burden of diseases, cost efficiency, measurement of equity and financing - that assess the performance of the health systems.”

New challenges are emerging. These include shortage of different categories of human resources; mal-distribution in both skills mix and in geographic areas; difficult and expensive pre-service education, production and retention. Also, effective management and development of the heath workforce is disrupted by poor planning, poor coordination, migration and other problems.

“There is a need to adapt health systems to the evolving scenario. In our region the epidemiological and demographic profile has undergone drastic changes,” stated Dr Sabri. These changes need to be captured so that it finds reflection in the way health services are provided. “For this purpose a forum comprising of all key stakeholders; the government, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, the academia and the civil society is needed to assess and build on the performance of the system. This is the reason behind advocating and promoting the establishment of the health observatory,” explained Dr Sabri.

The experience of the Observatories of Health Systems Development including Human Resources for Health in different places worldwide has shown that the observatory is an effective way to improve information and evidence and to increase advocacy for issues concerning human resources. A  regional human resources for health observatory is therefore proposed to support country-level efforts. This mechanism can contribute to a number of activities such as: improving quality data; formulating and defining country profiles; producing relevant analysis and research; engaging with policy-makers; sharing and dissemination; national and intercountry networking; and contributing to capacity building for human resources development in general.

Providing a brief overview of the WHO Regional Health System Observatory website and its contents, Dr Sameen Siddiqi, Regional Adviser, Health Policy and Planning, WHO/EMRO stated that, “precisely defining and describing human resources for health can help identify opportunities and constraints for scaling up and improving health interventions and outcomes,” He also acknowledged Oman’s commitment towards preparing and presenting the country’s Health System profile as a model worthy of emulation.

“Human resource information is vital for the development of a robust healthcare system,” acknowledged Mr Seif Al Nabhani, Director General of Planning, Ministry of Health, Oman. “We are keen on learning more about the latest WHO tools that would enable us to arrive at appropriate human resource indicators to improve our system performance,” stated

In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, interest in human resources development has been a priority for the past few decades. One of the major obstacles towards improving this development process at the national level is the lack of reliable national data on human resources for health. Efforts have been focused on collecting data at global and regional levels. The inclusion of more countries in this endeavour to establish a national mechanism will contribute towards establishing an observatory for human resources for health as part of an observatory on health system development.