Bilateral agreements on health worker migration and mobility

Overview

International migration and mobility of health workers has increased in volume and complexity in recent decades. If not adequately managed, migration of health workers from low-and middle-income countries can exacerbate shortages and weaken health systems in these countries, widening inequities.  This in turn can threaten international health security, with grave repercussions for economies and societies globally. Among the different pathways for movement of health workers, government-to-government agreements hold important potential to ensure that health workers and the health systems of participating countries benefit from health worker migration and mobility.

This guidance is a tool for improving the capacity of state actors involved in the development, negotiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agreements related to international health worker migration and mobility, keeping health system priorities at the fore, in alignment with the provisions of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The policy considerations in this document apply to all government-to-government agreements that are focused on, have a component on, or could have an impact on, health worker migration and mobility.

The guidance on bilateral agreements on health worker migration and mobility was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of the Working for Health programme.