On March 20, 2024, a meeting was held in Washington D.C. between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to discuss potential areas of cooperation focused on enhancing human resources for health (HRH) in the Region of the Americas. The goal of the meeting was to share ideas based on the institutions’ priorities in this area and identify possibilities for collaboration.
During the meeting, Benjamin Puertas, PAHO’s Unit Chief of Human Resources for Health, presented PAHO’s Health Workforce Policy 2030: strengthening human resources for health to achieve resilient health systems (CD60/6), and highlighted PAHO’s key areas of work, including HRH information systems, HRH migration and mobility, interprofessional teams, transformation of health professionals’ education, and the strengthening and expansion of the roles of nurses.
Sebastian Bauhhoff, Principal Health Economist of the IADB Social Sector Unit, discussed the bank’s main focuses and HRH projects related to training and competency, professional trajectories and workplace, recruitment, retention, and improving HRH productivity. The meeting explored technical cooperation topics such as assisting countries in HRH planning through tools like health labor market analysis, identifying necessary competencies for health professionals to handle emergencies and climate change impacts, HRH migration and mobility
