The issue of creating jobs in a decent and fair way is one of the most pressing global challenges of our era. This is Vice Versa’s – journalism platform on global development – main message of their special jobs report “The World of Work”, published last week. Our director Mariëlle Bemelmans highlights the specific concerns related to this urgent and complex dilemma for the health care sector: “Governments and donors need to realize the importance of investing in healthcare, including the creation of employment opportunities.”
Mariëlle in Vice Versa: “There are many reasons why insufficient numbers of additional jobs are created in the health sector. The only way to break the vicious circle is by applying an integrated approach and by truly working together. The narrative of ‘healthcare as a source of expense’ has to change. Investing in healthcare is in fact very beneficial from an economic point of view: for every dollar spent on health care, there is a return on investment of nine dollars, as investing in a healthy population increases productivity.”
“Moreover, by investing in jobs in healthcare you address two issues simultaneously: the huge shortages in healthcare personnel and the high unemployment among young adults in particular”, Mariëlle points out.
Worldwide, health workers are unevenly distributed. It is expected that by 2030, there will be 40 million more health sector jobs, mostly in middle- and high- income countries. At the same time, there is a projected shortfall of 18 million trained health workers, mostly in low-income countries. This would have a damaging impact on the health of the populations in these countries.
Wemos works together with other organisations towards sustainable and fair health worker policies, as an integral part of strong health systems worldwide. We advocate for ethical recruitment of foreign health personnel, ensuring that the discussion about the increased global health workforce mobility and migration includes redistribution aspects as well as decent work conditions.
Read the article ‘Midwives or a viaduct’ in Vice Versa’s Special jobs report here.
Find out more about our work on the area of Human Resources for Health here, or visit our knowledgeplatform for more information on all of our focus themes.
Visit the website of Vice Versa here (Dutch).
