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The year ahead for the global Health Partnerships community

31 January 2023

2023 is a critical year for action in global health and sustainable development more broadly. As we look to the year ahead, here are some of our reflections on key themes for the Health Partnerships community.

Building a stronger health workforce globally

Once again, the well-being and expectations of health professionals will take centre stage in 2023. We cannot and should not sidestep difficult conversations about workloads and staff shortages or the ethical responsibilities arising from the active recruitment of staff to wealthier countries. Workforce migration and pandemic, global warming and growing resistance to antimicrobials all speak to one truth: no health system is an island to itself. Nor does any single health system have a monopoly on good practice.

That is why it is so vital that we keep investing in our capacity to learn globally while acting locally this year. In the debates to come, the most persuasive voices will be those of the health workers themselves. To borrow Lord Crisp’s phrase, it is their role as ‘curators of knowledge and agents of change’, which needs to be heard as the world convenes this year to drive forward Universal Health Coverage for everyone, everywhere.

Ben Simms, CEO

Building climate-resilient health systems

As the 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change found, the climate emergency is undermining every dimension of global health, increasing the fragility of the global systems that health depends on, and increasing the vulnerability of populations to the coexisting geopolitical, energy, and cost-of-living crises.

It is vital that we build adaptation and resilience into our programming and contribute towards low carbon sustainable health systems.

At the national or regional level this might include partnering with the WHO’s Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, or at the local level using WHO’s Climate change and health toolkit. In 2023 THET looks forward to exploring these themes with the health partnership community.

Richard Skone-James, Head of Programmes

Recognising diaspora staff in the NHS

This year the UK celebrates the NHS’s 75th birthday. This milestone offers an opportunity to reflect on how the NHS began, but also, more importantly, its future. Here at THET we’re passionate about recognising and championing the role of diaspora staff in the NHS. 1 in 7 NHS staff report a non-British nationality. Yet the expertise of diaspora NHS staff in global health is underestimated and underutilized. Unconscious bias and persistent racism are just some of the barriers limiting the ability of the NHS to benefit fully from the expertise and knowledge of other health systems diaspora staff bring.

At THET we’re proud to be building on our 2021 policy report, ‘Experts in Our Midst’ through partnering with NHS trusts across the country to build an NHS ‘Diaspora Network for Global Health’—driving conversations that shift the dial, addressing the disparities in recruitment, retention, and career progression for internationally recruited healthcare workers in the UK.

Learn more in our 2022-2027 Strategic Plan

Stay tuned for more throughout 2023! Our goal to be ambitious in our approach to equity and inclusion means that we need to be a part of the conversations that shift the dial, addressing the disparities in recruitment, retention, and career progression for internationally recruited healthcare workers in the UK.

Sawdah Mohamed, Policy and Engagement Officer

This post was written by:

THET - External Engagement Team

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