The Southern African Health Ministers met in Centurion, Pretoria, on 9 June 2001, Ministers recalled that during the Annual Health Sectoral Meeting held in Gaborone, Botswana on 2-6 April 2001, they expressed concern at the high number of nurses who are being recruited out of the Region to developed countries. They noted that this hinders the ability of the Health Sector in the Region to provide critically needed services. The Ministers also expressed concern that in certain instances this might not be in the longer term interest of the nurses concerned.

Ministers also recalled that during the Pre-WHA Commonwealth Ministers Meeting held in Geneva in May 2001,the recruitment of human resources from developing countries was raised as a major concern and Ministers agreed to establish a Task Team to look into the matter.

Ministers renewed their concern on this matters and noted the following:

1. The recruitment of health personnel by developed countries is an indication of unwillingness on the part of developed countries to properly plan for their human resource needs.

2. The active and vigorous recruitment from developing countries, whilst it is generally known that these countries use meagre resources to train their staff, could be seen as looting from these countries and is similar to that experienced during the periods of colonisation when all resources, including minerals, were looted to developed countries.

3. The continued recruitment of staff is immoral in the light of the efforts by developing countries to re-establish health systems that offer an integrated response to the burden of diseases currently afflicting the region.Health human resources are now needed more that ever before, to cope with the increased number of patients generated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the growing burden of other communicable diseases.

4. The recruitment of health personnel in most cases did not take into account the long- term needs of staff, in the form of pension benefits.

Ministers noted that one of the principles of the Millenium Africa Recovery Programme which aims to integrate Africa into the global economy and which has been endorsed by the OAU, is to invest in people. The aims of the plan will thus not be achieved if our region continues to train for developed countries.

Ministers further noted that the recruitment of staff could be viewed as a form of racism, as noted by the 53^rd Session of the General Assembly in 1998 that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerances may be aggravated by, inter alia, inequitable wealth, marginalisation and social exclusion. The transfer of human

1resources from the developing to developed countries further entrenches inequitable wealth and resources and thus should be discouraged.

Notwithstanding the above concerns, SADC Health Ministers respect the democratic rights of individuals to their freedom of choice in respect of employment, as it may be of value for individuals to gain experience in working in different environments, especially if this is structured with a view to return and contribute to the long term support of our health systems. However, as responsible governments, we have an obligation to protect the investments we make using meagre public resources.

SADC Health Ministers therefore call for the following action:

1. The SADC Heads of State and Government note this major concern about the looting of the health human resources of the region, and discourage the practice at all international fora, including the upcoming SADC and OAU Heads of State Meetings in Malawi and Zambia respectively and at the Commonwealth Meeting in Brisbane.

2. The speeding up of SADC initiatives on intraregional staff exchange programmes, as well as the prioritisation of South- South co-operation on human resources.

3. A Code of Conduct be developed to bind Commonwealth countries by discouraging them from active recruitment of staff in developing countries, and to formalise conditions for such recruitment, through government- to - government agreements, should this occur.

4. Countries that poach staff from developing countries should ensure that pension benefits are available to this staff, in their countries of origin, and should compensate the affected countries.

5. Funding agencies should allow health departments to use development funding to improve the conditions of service of their workers, as this will limit the flow of human resources out of countries.

6. In addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Global AIDS Fund must also consider building the capacity of countries through supporting the strengthening of the human resources in those countries.