The Third Global Forum: framing the health workforce agenda for universal health coverage.

Despite encouraging progress towards the health targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)— including improved child mortality and coverage of antiretroviral treatment and malaria interventions— many health systems in low-income and middle-income countries face structural challenges. Health workforce inadequacies are regarded as a major impediment, especially for maternal mortality targets. The 2006 World Health Report recognised that adequate human resources for health are needed to accelerate progress and sustain achievements in the context of the MDGs, and called for a decade of action on human resources for health: the launch of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), the convening of two global forums on human resources for health (in 2008 and 2011), and the introduction in 2010 by the World Health Assembly of the WHO Global Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Personnel are among the key milestones of this period, having bolstered political attention to human resources for health. As leaders worldwide embrace the broader aspiration of universal health coverage “based on an adequate, skilled, well-trained and motivated workforce”, a forward-looking human resources for health agenda to which countries and other stakeholders can commit and that is tailored to achieving this objective needs to be outlined. Against this backdrop, GHWA, the Government of Brazil, WHO, and the Pan-American Health Organization are convening the Third Global Forum on human resources for health in Recife, Brazil, on Nov 10–13, 2013, under the theme “Human resources for health: foundation for universal health coverage and the post-2015 development agenda”. The Forum represents an opportunity to take stock; fi ndings from a joint GHWA and WHO report (to be launched in Brazil) show that all countries face the challenges of how to accelerate progress towards, attain, or sustain universal health coverage. For many countries, to secure a level of availability, distribution, and productivity of human resources for health compatible with the principles of universal health coverage (to expand population coverage and increase the health benefi ts package and improve fi nancial protection) seems daunting, if they continue moving along their present trajectories. Furthermore, demographic trends, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases and long-term care, macroeconomic and fi scal constraints triggered by fi nancial austerity, and a failure to introduce a systemic and long-term approach to understanding health labour markets and building a health workforce that is fi t for purpose will make human resources for health challenges in high-income, middle-income, and lowincome countries even more acute, rendering this a truly global challenge. At the same time, a large body of knowledge exists on possible solutions: new evidence and norms on human resources for health planning, education, management, retention, and migration can provide a basis for more eff ective action at national and international level. A theme issue of the November 2013 WHO Bulletin focusing on human resources for Published Online November 8, 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2214-109X(13)70082-2