Delivering on Equity Depends on Us

Abstract

Wo r l d He a lt H & Po P u l at i o n • Vo l.16 no.1 am honoured to present this most prescient issue of World Health and Population. Focused on The Global Health Workforce: Striving for Equity Tackling Challenges on the Ground, my charge to our invited authors was: “present a closeup and candid account of obstacles that confound the effective practice of the health workers on the ground, share your experiences, and recommend workable solutions.” The resulting seven papers from more than 30 authors tell us of healthcare circumstances in more than 50 countries. They describe myriad issues germane and familiar to health workforce challenges: large shortages of health professionals, competency, scope of practice, lack of credentialing and licensure mechanisms for cadres of health workers; maldistribution of the health workforce; protection of health workers; perverse incentives engendered by health systems and their impact on professional practice, access and costs; and how the lack of health workforce measurement cripples health systems and thwarts population health. These manuscripts include: an evaluation of multi-sector collaboration in Thailand to promote public health and healthy behaviours (Sopitarchasak et al. 2015); protecting and retaining health workers in civil war-torn Syria (Abbara et al. 2015); the initial report of an innovative continuity based model for health professionals training health professionals in 11 countries (Kerry et al. 2015); a survey of 70 lowand middle-income countries to assess stock, training and credentials of medically trained clinicians, including physician assistants and medical officers (Cobb et al. 2015); one year in, an assessment of Indonesia’s national health insurance system and the contextual HRH challenges (Sciortino and Roy 2015); team-based HIV treatment services using a nurse-led practice model to expand access to services in Namibia I FROM THE GUEST EDITOR