Senior officials from countries in the Region of the Americas met in San Salvador, El Salvador, to review human resources plans for primary health care and to coordinate with the finance, labor and education sectors of the participating countries. The workshop was organized by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) and PAHO/WHO, in collaboration with the Ministries of Health of El Salvador and Brazil.

San Salvador, El Salvador (PAHO) — Senior officials from countries in the Region of the Americas met in San Salvador, El Salvador, to review plans for human resources for primary health care and to coordinate with the finance, labor and education sectors of the participating countries. Participants were Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru. Each country sent a high-level delegation from the Ministries of Health (Department of Human Resources), Education (Higher Education), Finance (Treasury) and Labor (Civil Service) and representatives of bilateral cooperation agencies, development banks and U.N. agencies.

The workshop was organized by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in collaboration with the Ministries of Health of El Salvador and Brazil.

The purpose of the meeting was to help strengthen the stewardship of national health authorities in the design of human resource plans for primary health care, through the development of mechanisms of relationship and coordination with key sectors of government and other stakeholders.

The meeting provided an opportunity for the Ministries of Health of the participating countries to deepen the relationship and clarify an agenda with other invited government sectors, to exchange experiences to improve coordination mechanisms to address critical issues in human relations, and to make possible the development of Primary Health Care.

This workshop is the first major activity of the GHWA in the Region of the Americas. The products of the workshop will provide inputs for the 2nd Global HRH Forum, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on 25-29 January 2011.