The WHO Global Code: increasing relevance and effectiveness

The international migration of health personnel is on the rise. Recent data demonstrate increasing reliance on foreign-born and foreign-trained health professionals in OECD countries with a 60 % increase in the total number of migrant nurses and physicians over the last decade and a higher proportionate increase from countries experiencing ‘critical’ health workforce shortages [1]. These trends are projected to worsen [2]. OECD countries are not the only destination. Emerging economies in Asia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly the destinations for migrating health professionals [3]. The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (hereafter ‘the Code’) is an instrument of important normative value [4]. Adopted by all Member States of the WHO, the Code establishes and promotes voluntary principles and practices to better manage the international migration of health personnel, with a focus on strengthening health systems. In 2015, the WHO Executive Board requested the DG to conduct the first review of the relevance and effectiveness of the Code [5]. An independent Expert Advisory Group (EAG) was established and following deliberations concluded that the Code remains ‘highly’ relevant, particularly in the context of increasing intra and inter-regional labour mobility. The EAG also identified implementation-related weakness and provided specific recommendations, namely: