This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.
Corinne Farrell recently sat down with Constance Newman, IntraHealth’s senior team leader for gender equality and health and a committed advocate for social justice, to discuss this year’s International Women’s Day theme of “connecting girls and inspiring futures.”
Asked how the International Women’s Day theme, Connecting girls, inspiring futures, relates to IntraHealth’s mission of empowering and supporting health workers, Constance Newman did not hesitate: “It’s about connecting girls to school and protecting women’s ties to the paid health workforce.”
Fifty-seven countries are experiencing crisis-level shortages of health workers. In many of these countries, health workers are predominantly female, particularly nurses, midwives, and community health workers. Many health workforce leaders question whether gender issues, such as discrimination, are really among the most pressing issues contributing to health workforce shortages. Based on her 25 years of experience, observation, reading, and research in global health and the health workforce, Newman feels the urgency to document the evidence that will put these questions to rest and stimulate action. “If you don’t have women entering the paid health workforce, and if they aren’t safe, secure, and satisfied in their jobs, you are not going to have the workforce that you need—one that’s diverse and robust enough to meet the health challenges in these countries.” Read more »
To bring the benefits of access to health worker information to the Ugandan public, the Ministry of Health, working closely with 
It's been about three weeks since I was in Malawi, and I haven't stopped thinking about the smiling faces of the health workers at the Pirimiti Community Hospital. As I watched them go about their work, I wondered what it was that kept the smiles on their faces. 
m standards rooted in the Geneva Conventions to protect health facilities, health workers, and the patients served during armed conflict, and to enable health professionals to act consistently with their ethical obligations, assaults on and interference with health functions are all too common in war. Aside from the human toll they take, these attacks often compromise the ability to deliver care to populations in great need, impede efforts to reconstruct health systems after war, and lead to the flight of health workers whose presence in a time of great social stress is essential.
Remote regions of the world often face the most challenges accessing health services and health workers. In the frontier areas on the border of Bolivia and Peru, these difficulties are anticipated to intensify with the completion of the transoceanic highway. Intended to link South American ports on the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, the highway will open this rural frontier to increased commerce, traffic and migration, as well as an increased demand for health services. Consequently, with the opening of the highway, incidence of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases will likely increase. 
There are 
Mental health is not always on the forefront of people’s minds when they think about global health and the critical shortage of trained health workers. But the need is there.
It was a great opportunity for me to sit among hundreds of human resources professionals from Kenya and the East Africa region during the recent 16th National human resources management forum organized by the Kenya Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) in Nairobi. The forum was graced with highly experienced and resourceful facilitators from different sectors and it was very exciting to learn from their experiences, successes, and challenges. 
