The Global Health Workforce: ‘Pathways to Health’
There are one billion people in the world who have no access to any healthcare services. The health workforce has been the cornerstone in channelling efforts to achieve the Health MDGs, where much of the focus has been on women, children and those most vulnerable to – and infected and affected by – HIV and AIDS and other communicable diseases. Millions of lives are lost each year due to inadequate access to skilled, motivated and supported health workers, with one billion people in 57 countries facing a daily struggle to access basic healthcare due to health workforce shortages and uneven distribution of health workers within countries. The inequality of distribution between countries is substantial: Sub-Saharan Africa bears 25% of the global burden of disease – but has only 3% of the world‘s health workers.
The Irish Forum for Global Health‘s (IFGH) two days conference, which opened in Dublin on 2nd February, 2012,