Take a chance on the numbers?: A global perspective on healthcare human resource planning for the midwifery workforce Seminar

The State of the World’s Midwifery Report http://www.unfpa.org/sowmy/report/home.html released in June 2011 gathered data from 58 countries, which for the first time consisted of qualitative and quantitative data contextualising the number of midwives and others with midwifery competencies, educational routes, and current issues affecting the professions. Majority of the countries included in the report have had consistent attention including through the Countdown 2010 Report (74%), and in the 2009 Scale-Up Taskforce report (90%) which also concentrated on the low income countries. The report identified a gap of 112,000 trained midwives or others with midwifery competencies required in 38 of the neediest countries, with a gap of 350,000 skilled midwifery personnel identified.

The aim of the presentation is to outline the findings of the report and renew the debate on the role of projections and models in informing policy decision-making on how many to train to ensure future supply of the midwifery workforce. The talk will initially focus on current and required capacity for delivering midwifery care and increasing skilled birth attendance in line with Millennium Development Goals, the gaps and issues with the capacity data and explore the impact of variation in the model assumptions for the gap analysis.

The discussion will explore the potential for the healthcare modelling and specifically the capacity planning community to ensure transparency (at country and international community level) regarding the assumptions and enabling dynamic tools to use the latest data and take into account variation with the a ‘useful at the point of decision’ attitude to estimating gap and informing policy decision-making.