Gendering health human resource policy and management

Over recent years, health human resources (HHR) have rapidly moved up on the policy agenda in most countries. International organizations like the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the European Union have all drawn attention to a dramatic future shortage of health human resources in all areas of the world and called for urgent action (Commission of the European Communities, 2008; Kampala Declaration, 2008; WHO, 2006). Shortages and inefficient use of existing skills together with changes in the composition of the health professional workforce by age, gender and citizenship have created a need for more systematic policy interventions and new forms of health human resource management. Yet health policy reforms and scholarly debate over how to manage health human resources more effectively have largely ignored the fact that the healthcare division of labour is structured by gender, and that any change in the sector is imbued with complex gender dynamics.