Partners in health: Resisting privatization of the health workforce through collaboration with local governments

Since 2003 one key element of the work of Partners in Health has been to confront the privatization of health care professionals, mandated by the Breton Woods institutions, and show how the process when reversed has a measurable, positive impact on the Health and Human Rights of populations which enjoy a strong state-controlled public health and primary care initiative. In Haiti, Rwanda, Malawi and Lesotho Partners in Health has worked closely with the state ministry of health to support its mandate, rather than poach from a limited supply of health professionals working in a given country. Results from these collaborations are exciting and chart a new way of promoting and financing primary care through an AIDS prevention and treatment mandate.