In Uganda, health worker recruitment is decentralized; Omaswa calls for reform.

Prof. Francis Omaswa, executive director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST), a health rights NGO, has said that Uganda needs a new health worker recruiting mechanism.

“Right present, health worker recruitment is decentralized.” This is a significant source of contention. “There are many empty positions, but there are also many jobless health professionals,” said Omaswa, a former director-general of health services at the health ministry.

Omaswa, who spoke at the Uganda-UK Health Alliance webinar on Tuesday, remarked that many doctors were leaving for better pastures and encouraged the government to support the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Code on International Recruitment of Health Personnel.

‘Migration is happening and will continue, whether we like it or not.’ ‘I’d want us to support the WHO Code on International Recruitment of Health Personnel,’ Omaswa stated.

The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (“the Code”), adopted at the 63rd World Health Assembly in 2010, aims to improve understanding and ethical management of international health personnel recruitment through improved data, information, and international cooperation.