The Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that investment in health workforce yields a triple dividend for health, the economy, and gender equality.
In his New Year Video Message to the World, the head of the UN Health Agency paid glowing tribute to health workers, describing them as “brave”. The DG requested that governments across the world should do more in supporting them.
“They are doing life-saving work every day, including during holidays when the rest of us are with our loved ones at home. But the world needs to do a better job in supporting our health workers, paying them, training them and protecting them,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said.
He reminded viewers that 2020 was the International Year of The Nurse and The Midwife, describing nurses as the group of health workers that provided service “from the first moments of life to the last”.
The health workforce shortage is not evenly distributed and disproportionately affects the African region.
Consequently, WHO is focusing on how government at all levels could improve the human resources crises, especially with respect to nurses and midwives who play a critical role from the first breath to the last.
“During this year, WHO and our partners will ask countries to improve the education and employment of nurses and midwives”, the WHO scribe said.
The WHO organization says that nurses and midwives constitute 50% of the global health workforce and also about 50% of the global health workforce shortage.
