04 May HRH2030 Director’s Digest: May 2020
May 2020: The Pandemic and Perseverance
Dear Colleagues,
As we enter another month of this pandemic, I am drawing strength from the stories that show how health workers are persevering in the face of tremendously challenging circumstances. As a health workforce specialist, I have been studying, writing about, and working on the health workforce shortage for decades now. And I’m worried about what comes next—how much greater will this shortage be in the aftermath of such a global crisis? Will the events of these past few months inspire the next generation of health workers—or will it make them turn away and seek opportunities in different sectors? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, HRH2030 is persevering in our activities to deliver on our mission: to help countries develop the health workforce needed to prevent maternal and child deaths, support the goals of Family Planning 2020, control the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and protect communities from infectious diseases. I’m pleased to share with you how we’re moving forward:
Our new initiative with the Timor-Leste National Institute of Health will strengthen their capacity to use health workforce training data, to lead to more strategic health workforce decisions. We’re also supporting PEPFAR’s commitment to achieving sustained HIV epidemic control with an updated, enhanced version of our Human Resources for Health Optimization Tool for Antiretroviral Therapy (HOT4ART), to put staffing information into the hands of health facility and program managers quickly at a time where every moment counts. Our One Health Activity continues to support governments with a multi-sectoral approach to implement the Global Health Security Agenda. We recently welcomed Dr. Abraham Ali Mohammed, leading our activity in Ethiopia, to our team.
As fitting in this Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, our recent “World Health Worker Week” video testimonial campaign with the Frontline Health Workers Coalition showcased the voices of nurses and midwives around the world—Argentina, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Syria, Uganda, and the U.S.—who advocated strongly for more nurses and midwives in positions of leadership.
Finally, at a time when so much attention is focused on how to combat COVID-19, it is vital that we do not lose ground in the fight against other deadly infectious diseases, like malaria. To commemorate World Malaria Day in April, we shared a snapshot of work HRH2030 has supported in Sierra Leone, through our Capacity Building for Malaria activity, in collaboration with the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, USAID, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Sierra Leone National Malaria Control Program. It’s a great example of a collaborative effort.
Hoping that you are all finding your own sources of strength and perseverance during these difficult days. As a community, we will get through this together.
Best,
Wanda Jaskiewicz
Project Director, HRH2030