Manifesto
The health sector in Italy is facing a growing need for skilled health workers. Italy needs to train about 35,000 new professionals a year yet its training capacity is limited. The country is therefore unable to meet this demand on its own. This is particularly true as far as nurses are concerned. This shortage of health workers can jeopardize Italy’s ability to provide the health services its population needs. The situation, however, is not peculiar to Italy alone: the shortage of health workers is a global phenomenon, with particularly dramatic repercussions in many developing countries. Consequently, the ongoing unilateral recruitment of foreign trained health personnel by many European countries, including Italy, is not a solution; a common and shared cooperation policy is sorely needed to address this complex phenomenon. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized this need. In May 2010, it adopted the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. Its aim is to ensure that the global demand for the recruitment of health personnel does not negatively affect countries with weak health systems.
By adhering to the WHO Code of Practice not only has the Italian Government made a number of commitments but so too by extension have its national health system, its Regions, health professional organizations and associations, labour agencies, international cooperation organizations, and civil society. The Manifesto’s signatory organizations are committed to ensure that the Code of Practice will be implemented in Italy. They look forward with interest to the first monitoring occasion in May, 2012, when Italy, as other WHO Member States, will be called to report upon the implementation of the Code of Practice to the WHO.
The Manifesto for health workforce strenghtening has been developed, promoted and signed in this context by a group of organizations operating in Italy in the field of health cooperation, public health and international migration.
