PHR is Going to Kampala
Posted in agha, forum, hwai, udhr, who on Feb 26th, 2008 No Comments »
Next week, a team of Physicians for Human Rights staff members, including Frank Donaghue, Pat Daoust, Sarah Kalloch, Eric Friedman and I, will travel to Uganda for the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala. We will also be joined by our colleagues in Uganda, including Emily Bancroft, Winnie Ngabiirwe, Pam Babirukamu Kamujuni, from the Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA). The Forum is being convened by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (a global partnership hosted by World Health Organization) and will bring together up to 1000 participants, including ministers of health, civic leaders, civil society members, health workers, academics and health professional leaders from around the world.
The Forum will provide an extraordinary opportunity for PHR to share and explore solutions with the global movement that is emerging to respond to the critical lack of human resources in health systems. In partnership with our colleagues, including Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), we will run two workshops on human rights and advocacy training and also attend strategy meetings for the Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative (HWAI). As some of you may know, HWAI is the civil society-led network of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, which PHR currently chairs. HWAI advocates for the needed financing, a rights-based approach and other actions to enable countries to develop the health workforces they need to achieve universal access to essential health services.
As this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Kampala Forum can direct international attention towards a rights-based approach to the crisis in human resources for healthcare. As members of the global come together for the forum, the wider global community can unite to achieve global goals and to secure the highest available standard of health for all. Please stay close by as we bring you updates from the exciting developments in Kampala throughout the coming week.
Jirair Ratevosian, MPH, is the National Field Organizer for PHR’s Health Action AIDS Campaign.
