Global Health Workforce Barcelona

Dear colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to the Global Health Workforce Barcelona, which will take place on 17–18 September in Barcelona, under the leadership of Women in Global Health and with the support of the Scientific Committees of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH). This event builds on the first joint conference organized in Barcelona by ICOH and Women in Global Health, which placed the health of health workers at the centre of the global agenda.

Global Health Workforce Barcelona is the legacy of the work advanced by the Gender Equal Health and Care Workforce Initiative (GEHCWI), co-led by the Government of France and Women in Global Health, which has made gender equity in the health and care workforce a global political priority. From Barcelona, we aim to contribute to this global effort by strengthening the visibility, leadership, and protection of the women who sustain our health systems.

The Conference is structured around two complementary days. The first day will focus on the major challenges facing health systems in relation to their workforce: shortages and maldistribution of health workers, unsafe and precarious working conditions, gender and generational inequalities, and the urgent need to integrate occupational health into global health and universal health coverage policies. The second day will highlight scientific evidence and data on the health workforce, addressing leadership, mental health, generational change, and other key dimensions for the sustainability of health systems.

By 2030, Global Health Workforce Barcelona aims to achieve four key network-wide results:

• Leadership outcomes: more diverse and influential women’s leadership across partner institutions.
• Workplace outcomes: safer and more decent workplaces, with practical standards and meaningful accountability.
• Policy outcomes: stronger gender responsiveness in decisions on universal health coverage (UHC) and pandemic preparedness and response (PPPR) through targeted, context-safe advocacy.
• Organizational resilience: diversified and sustainable revenue streams, with clear safeguards to protect the independence and equity of the movement.

Our work is organized around three core delivery pillars: Gender-Transformative Leadership, Safe and Decent Workplaces, and Leadership in UHC and PPPR. These are strengthened by accelerators—Climate and Health, Academia/STEAM and Research, and Digital Health and AI—that are applied where relevant and where there is regional or national opportunity. This framework helps us maintain focus, avoid strategic sprawl, and sharpen our external positioning as a global reference space on the health workforce with a gender lens.

Global Health Workforce Barcelona translates into real change by shifting norms and narratives, turning evidence into institutional rules and accountability mechanisms, and increasing women’s power in decision-making spaces through context-safe pathways. Coalition-building among Women in Global Health chapters, international organizations, universities, unions, and professional associations reinforces this work at a time of backlash, rights regression, and shrinking civic space in many parts of the world.

Above all, this Conference is a space to recognize the essential—yet often invisible—role of women, who constitute the majority of the health and care workforce but remain underrepresented in leadership and decision-making positions. We want to hear the voices of those working on the front lines, those who conduct research, lead institutions, shape public policies, and drive change from civil society, and to co-create new solutions to the challenges facing the global health workforce.

I warmly invite you to join us in Barcelona on 17–18 September, to share experiences, data, and solutions, and to strengthen an international community committed to fairer, safer, and more equitable health systems for those who care for the world’s health.