This month’s press review focuses on human resources in healthcare.

We have chosen this theme for the press review because we consider it to be central. In fact, we’ve decided to make it a priority theme for the think tank in 2022. While we look forward to sharing our findings and reflections with you at a workshop to be held next autumn, in partnership with the AFD, we hope that this press review will contribute to further reflection on these important issues.

As always, our press reviews include links to reference documents, such as the Global Strategy to 2030, as well as links to reports or working papers in the “grey literature” that we have found enlightening, and scientific articles.

For once, we have chosen to focus primarily on OECD countries, with a few more specific articles on France (such as this prospective analysis of trades and qualifications), and of course a few articles onFrench-speaking Africa. The Covid crisis has clearly demonstrated the importance of these issues.

First of all, we’ve put together a series of institutional and scientific documents to help you better understand the global issues at stake. These documents point to numerous imbalances, particularly geographical, within countries of course, but also at international level, creating a real imbalance between supply and demand in healthcare on a planetary scale. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a quarter of the global burden of disease, yet only 3% of the world’s healthcare professionals. Beyond migration issues (which can be considered on a global, European or even French departmental scale), several points of attention emerge from these documents, notably the need for healthcare professions to evolve to meet new needs, such as the ageing of certain populations, or gender issues.

Of course, policies can be put in place to address these inequalities, whether in terms of recruitment conditions, training, retention or the distribution of healthcare personnel. Here are some examples of policies implemented to meet these needs, in both low- and high-income countries.

The international community has been addressing these issues for some years now, organizing events such as the first global forum devoted to these issues in Kampala in 2008, or the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth in 2016, setting up platforms such as theGlobal Health Workforce Alliance, joint programs (Working for health) and disseminating a monitoring and evaluation manual, and guidelines for retaining staff in decentralized areas. A code of good practice for the international recruitment of healthcare staff was even introduced in 2010, but its results have been mixed.

There’s still a long way to go.