The Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council (“the Council”) is a partnership of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Realizing Rights, and the World Health Organization. The work of the Council is at an important juncture. The global political will to more ethically manage the migration of health worker continues to expand. This Council meeting comes at an opportune time, following closely on the May 2009 World Health Assembly technical briefing and the Commonwealth-Realizing Rights Roundtable in Geneva on this topic.

At the June 1 Council meeting, we focused more directly on the role of the U.S. in the global health worker labor market and developed a Memorandum to President Obama outlining the Council recommendations for U.S. policy response to the challenges posed by health worker migration, linking U.S. domestic health reform and global health outcomes. In addition, we updated the Council and meeting participants on progress related to the WHO Draft Global Code of Practice, including updates on the WHA technical briefing and the Commonwealth-Realizing Rights meeting; and provided an update on Council Secretariat activities, including progress on the Guidebook on Bilateral Agreements and addressing the human right to health and human right to freedom of movement debate.