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G8 Statement affirms responsibility to address Africa's health worker
crisis
Physicians for Human Rights
July 08, 2005
http://www.phrusa.org/campaigns/aids/news_2005-07-08.html
The G8 has endorsed
for the first time the idea that Western countries have a responsibility
to invest in African health systems; to train doctors, nurses, and
community health workers; and to help build capacity if African
nations are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
MDGs are internationally agreed upon targets that include large
reductions in maternal and child mortality and improved control
and treatment of major diseases. Progress toward these goals will
be evaluated at a September United Nations meeting in New York.
The G8 statement, however, failed to devise a plan to alleviate
the crisis or specify a sum of money which must be committed to
the problem. There has been increasing momentum regarding this issue
in recent months, with Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for
Africa report calling for a tripling of the health workers in Africa
and Secretary General Kofi Annan's petition last week for one million
new health workers for the continent. Last week, the British Medical
Journal published an editorial urging the United Kingdom, the United
States, and other rich countries to become self-sufficient in their
health worker requirements to remove their need for health workers
from the Global South.
"G8 countries have a legal and ethical responsibility to invest
money to rebuild the health workforce in Africa," said Eric
A. Friedman, PHR's HIV/AIDS policy analyst. "Working with African
countries, the G8 must make a plan, with a budget and a timeline,
for fixing this problem. "The G8 communiqué, while a
useful statement of principle, falls far short of this. It will
now be up to every G8 President and Prime Minister, Congressperson
and Parliamentarian to turn the broad G8 commitment into actions
- and dollars - required for every country in Africa to develop
the health workforce and health systems necessary to meet international
health goals."
Groups including Physicians for Human Rights (www.phrusa.org),
Health GAP (www.healthgap.org),
the Joint Learning Initiative (http://www.globalhealthtrust.org/JLI.htm),
and the Global Health Council (http://www.globalhealth.org/)
have worked closely to develop an estimate of how much money will
be needed to redress the situation. The groups are calling for a
global investment of US $2 billion in 2006, rising to $7.7 billion
in 2010 by all donors, and have calculated the U.S. share as being
one-third of the sum needed, or $650 million for 2006, rising to
$2.6 billion in 2010. US spending could focus on countries funded
under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The figures
were calculated by a group that included Lincoln C. Chen, MD, MPH,
the Director of the Harvard University Global Equity Initiative
and co-chair for coordination of the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI);
Paul Davis of Health GAP; and Eric A. Friedman, JD, Policy Analyst
for Physicians for Human Rights.
Right now in
Africa, a mere 1.3% of the world's health workers struggle to care
for people suffering 25% of the global disease burden. In Malawi,
only 10% of the physician slots are filled, while 10 people die
every hour of AIDS. Across Africa AIDS has killed thousands of health
care workers, and large numbers of doctors and nurses are migrating
to the West, driven out by impoverished health care systems and
lured by elaborate recruiting packages by hospitals in G8 countries.
For example, while 1200 physicians were trained in Zimbabwe during
the 1990s, by 2001 only 360 remained. More than 3,000 nurses from
African nations migrated to the United Kingdom in 2002-2003.
The investments in the costing estimate include:
- Salaries,
benefits, and incentives (including salaries and benefits for
new health workers, improved salary packages, and economic incentives
to encourage health professionals to work in rural and other underserved
areas)
- Expanded
health worker pre-service training capacity and development of
continuous learning and professional development opportunities.
- Human resource
management and planning.
- Training
and support for community and home caregivers.
- Improving
health workplace safety (including universal precautions and other
forms of infection prevention and control, post-exposure prophylaxis,
psychosocial support, and HIV prevention programs).
- Regional
and global support and learning for health workforce strengthening.
- PHR observes
that the removal of debt from African countries is also key to
helping countries reach Millennium Development Goals.
- See PHR's
report, "An Action Plan to Prevent Brain Drain"
- See Cost
Analysis for Health Care Workers for Sub-saharan Africa
Contact:
Kate Krauss kkrauss@phrusa.org
Tel 617 301-4240
Fax 617-301-4250
Cell: 215-939-7852
Barbara Ayotte
617-301 4210
617-549-0152 cell
bayotte@phrusa.org
---------------------------------
Physicians
for Human Rights
Founded in 1986, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), based in Boston,
MA, advances health and dignity by protecting human rights. Health
Action AIDS, a project of PHR, mobilizes health professionals to
support a comprehensive AIDS strategy and advocates for funds to
combat the disease. It develops ways for US health professionals
to support colleagues and activists around the world and researches
the connection between human rights and HIV/AIDS. As a founding
member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, PHR shared
the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
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