White House Initiative Should Focus on Helping Africa ’s Health Workers Be Present, Ready, Connected, and Safe

By Cheick Oumar Tour é, Chief technical officer (interim) ; David Bryden, Director of the Frontline Health Workers Coalition and senior policy and advocacy advisor at IntraHealth InternationalFebruary 04, 2022As the White House plans to launch a new initiative to strengthen the global health workforce around the world, I sat down withCheick Touré, a doctor and health workforce expert from Mali who serves asIntraHealth International’s interim chief technical officer.We talked about what the Biden Administration should incorporate into their plan to help build a stronger, more prepared, and more sustainable health workforce in Africa.DB: What should President Biden emphasize for this initiative?CT: If I were designing the White House initiative, I would focus on helping countries create a clear vision to strengthen entire health systems sustainably. That means focusing not just on the vertical programs that target one area for change but helping national governments with the tools and systems they need to measure the capabilities of their health workforce.It ' s difficult, but it will last longer and lead to better results.For example, in the early days of the Global Fund they only focused on malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. But they saw that what they had achieved in those areas was fragile and when the project ended, everything went back to the same level or worse.Now they emphasize integrated, people-centered services, building systems that protect peop...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Health Workers Source Type: news