Improving retention of health workers in rural and remote areas: Case studies from WHO South-East Asia Region
Executive Summary
Overview
Access to quality primary health care (PHC) is the right of all people everywhere, including in remote and rural areas. A fully functioning PHC system that can meet most people’s health needs, whatever their age and income, gender or ethnicity, is a precondition to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and health and well-being for all at all ages. This is especially true in the WHO South-East Asia Region, where an estimated 66% of the Region’s near 2 billion people live in remote or rural areas.
Critical to the provision of quality PHC in remote and rural areas is a sufficient, well-trained, skilled and motivated health workforce. To help all countries in the Region achieve this outcome, in 2014 the Region embarked on a Decade (2015-2024) for Health Workforce Strengthening, with a focus on improving health worker retention in rural areas. The Region has made notable progress which, along with ongoing challenges, is reflected in the six case studies documented herein. Key interventions, which have been rolled out in bundles, and which are aligned with the 2010 WHO guidelines on rural retention of health workers, have focused primarily on education, financial incentives, regulation and personal support interventions. As the case studies demonstrate, concerted and coordinated action across sectors and stakeholders can forge real gains, from which Member States across the Region and the world can draw valuable lessons.
