COVID-19 is upending health systems and health workforces across the world. In low- and middle-income countries especially, the pandemic has diminished access to essential health services, threatening to reverse decades of progress in global health, including toward ending preventable maternal and child deaths, achieving epidemic control of HIV, eliminating malaria, eradicating measles, and ending TB. Without immediate interventions, countries could feel the repercussions of these health losses for decades to come.
A strong and resilient frontline health workforce is critical for a country to continue to provide access to essential services and prevent, detect, and respond to global health threats like COVID-19. Countries and donors must catalyze the current spotlight on frontline health workers and learnings from the pandemic to ensure long-term investments in and policies for frontline health workers to ensure universal access to essential services after the pandemic.
This event will bring together diverse stakeholders in conjunction with the 75th UN General Assembly to galvanize countries to make and uphold commitments to the frontline health workforce, and discuss how investments in the workforce now can set countries up to manage their populations’ health needs in a post-pandemic world.