Join us in celebrating World Health Worker Week, April 4 - 8, 2022. This year's theme is Build the Health Workforce Back Better and is the tenth year in a row the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners are celebrating frontline health workers and elevating their voices, roles, and needs. 

Learn about ways you can push donors, governments, and health leaders to do more to support the future health workforce, including making long-term investments and policies to better train, deploy, equip, protect, retain, and support frontline health workers, especially in low- and middle-income countries. 

Get Involved in World Health Worker Week 

⭐ Join the #WHWWeek conversation on Twitter to stay up to date on conversations and events throughout the week

⭐ Add your voice and ideas to the Frontline Healthworker Coalition's video campaign. Film a short video of yourself, saying “Build the Health Workforce Back Better means ____.” Read this guide for more info and upload your video here.

⭐ Share the Frontline Healthworker Coalition's Top Policy Recommendations to Build the Health Workforce Back Better

Upcoming Events for World Health Worker Week

📅 Monday, April 4, at 8 am ET | 2 pm CEST: Investing in Competency-Based Education for UHC

Progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) requires strong health systems and health workers who are educated and empowered to provide the health services that meet population health needs. With this webinar, WHO launches its Global Competency and Outcomes Framework for UHC. In so doing, WHO sets out its recommended approach to competency-based education of health workers, focusing on those competencies and other education outcomes for health workers in primary health care with a pre-service training pathway of 12-48 months. Register today!

📅 Tuesday, April 5, at 9 am ET | 4 pm EAT: Health Workers Matter for Global Health Security: Here's Why

Join IntraHealth International and a panel of experts to explore how we can better prepare for future pandemics and increase our global health security by investing in and supporting health workers around the world. Speakers include the leads for global health security at USAID and Africa CDC, a community health worker, and country-level implementers. Register here!

📅 Wednesday, April 6, at 12 pm ET | 7 pm EAT: After the Final Wave: Nurturing the Health Workforce We Need

This event will begin with a preview of The First Wave, a documentary film that spotlights health workers in one of New York's hardest-hit hospitals during the first four months of the pandemic. Then speakers, including health workers, will discuss how we can—and must—nurture and build our respective health workforces and create a more equitable health care system for all. Note that this event is part of the official Skoll World Forum, so you must register for the forum to attend this event.

📅 Thursday, April 7, at 8 am ET: Subsidizing global health: Women’s unpaid work in health systems

Despite being the majority in the profession, women in the health sector are paid 23% less than their male counterparts and millions of women are working unpaid or grossly underpaid in core health systems roles. Against this backdrop, Women in Global Health, in collaboration with the Frontline Health Worker Coalition, will hold a high-level event to launch WGH’s latest policy report, Subsidizing global health: Women’s unpaid work in health systems. Register here!

📅 Thursday, April 7, at 9 am ET: Community Health Worker Voices on UHC

This event—the first of a series of quarterly CHW dialogues—will bring together CHWs from across sub-Saharan Africa in a knowledge-sharing conversation on what universal health coverage (UHC) looks like to them, how new policies have impacted their day-to-day work, and the impact of COVID on their ability to deliver essential health services. Register here!

Other Resources to Build Back Better

📚 Read Community Health Volunteers as Immunization Advocates, a Bright Spots story that highlights the inspiring efforts of community health volunteers across Kisumu County, Kenya to get their communities' vaccine rates to exceed pre-COVID levels

📚 Listen to Episode 5 of the COVID-19 Listening & Learning Podcast - Insights from Nurses on the Frontlines of COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery - that highlights two health workers in Lesotho and Uganda who work on the frontline of vaccine delivery