During a meeting held in Washington D.C. on March 20, 2024, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) discussed potential areas of cooperation focused on enhancing human resources for health (HRH) in the Region of the Americas. The objective of the meeting was to share ideas based on the cooperation priorities of both institutions in this area and to identify potential areas for collaboration.
The main scope of work and HRH projects led by the IADB on issues related to training and competency, professional trajectories and workplace, recruitment, retention, and improving the productivity of HRH were outlined by Sebastian Bauhhoff, the Principal Health Economist of the IADB’s Social Sector Unit. He also highlighted how these projects are designed to support countries in their HRH planning using tools such as health labor market analysis, identifying the necessary competencies for health professionals to address emergencies and climate change impacts, HRH migration and mobility, and the development of HRH information systems.
Benjamin Puertas, PAHO’s Unit Chief of Human Resources for Health, presented PAHO’s Health Workforce Policy 2030 which aims to strengthen human resources for health to achieve resilient health systems. He also highlighted PAHO’s priority areas of work such as HRH information systems, HRH migration and mobility, interprofessional teams, transformation of health professionals’ education, and strengthening roles of nurses.
Both PAHO and IADB expressed a strong interest in establishing a more concrete collaboration and engaging in detailed regional political dialogue to form alliances with countries in the Americas to strengthen the health workforce. This collaboration aims to enhance capacity and effectiveness of healthcare workers across region through supporting countries in their planning efforts using tools such as those mentioned above.
Overall both organizations recognized that building a strong human resource base is essential for achieving sustainable development goals including universal healthcare coverage.
