The project proposed is a preliminary assessment phase of a subsequent programme that aims to strengthen the capacity of the public sector health care services in South Africa by facilitating the recruitment and placement of foreign health care professionals. The Government of South Africa has been implementing a number of strategies to relieve shortages of health care professionals in the public sector and has to date already recruited foreign qualified health care professionals through bilateral agreements between South Africa and countries such as Cuba, Iran and Germany.
IOM’s regional office in Pretoria (MRF Pretoria) will assess the interest and availability of health care professionals in three selected developed countries (the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) to work in the public sector in South Africa, via a mapping exercise of relevant institutions and associations. The assessment, which will be implemented with assistance from IOM offices in the selected three countries, will form the basis for subsequent information campaigns, and other activities that will complement the work of South African local partners who work in recruiting foreign health care professionals in the public sector health care of South Africa. In this first phase, MRF Pretoria also aims to set up a web-based information database with information on health worker migration in South Africa, as part of the IOM MRF Pretoria website (www.iom.org.za). In addition, MRF Pretoria will organise a stakeholder meeting on health worker migration with the relevant partners in South Africa, to ensure coordination and establish a network of relevant stakeholders for future collaboration.