The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday launched a five-year, PhP 750 million ($15 million), nationwide Human Resources for Health in 2030 (HRH2030) project to help the Department of Health (DOH) strengthen the workforce skills to better respond to the country’s health needs. The theme of the launch event was “Investing in Health Workforce Saves Lives.”

USAID Mission Director Lawrence Hardy II and DOH Undersecretary Roger Tong-An were keynote speakers at the launch. Hardy said, “Through your commitment and our work together, we are confident that the Philippines will continue to build a strong and resilient health system.”

About 30,000 medical doctors, nurses, dentists, medical technologists and midwives serve the needs of 106 million Filipinos. These professionals have divergent skills and are unequally distributed across the country. USAID’s HRH2030 project will address this disparity by building the capacity of the DOH to train, deploy and manage health workers, ultimately expanding access to quality family planning, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis services for vulnerable populations.

“The DOH intends to accelerate reforms for service delivery in order to create demand for a holistic client experience. In addition, we are working to address maldistribution of human resources for health in the country, especially in underserved areas,” said Undersecretary of Health Dr. Gerardo Bayugo.

USAID’s HRH2030 project is part of a global initiative supported by USAID in more than 20 countries, to further USAID’s vision of sustained, equitable access to responsive, high-quality health services. More information about HRH2030 is available on the program’s website: www.hrh2030program.org.