It’s been more than two years since the first-ever Global Forum on Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Kampala, Uganda. The global community is gaining awareness of the HRH crisis and the pressing need to strengthen the health workforce. Many countries have made progress, but there is still a global shortage of over four million health workers.

What has happened since Kampala, and where do we go from here? These will be some of the hot topics at the Second Global Forum on HRH to be held January 25-29, 2011, in Bangkok, Thailand. The forum will examine how far the global community has gone in realizing the Agenda for Global Action and what remains to be done.

Planning is well underway. Last month, Jim McCaffery, CapacityPlus deputy director for HRH/health systems strengthening, joined the Global Health Workforce Alliance, World Health Organization, and a diverse group of partners on the International Organizing Committee in Geneva to plan the Bangkok forum. The forum “is the most important HRH meeting over the next year,” says McCaffery, emphasizing its global scope. The IntraHealth-led CapacityPlus global project will also be involved in the forum through its coordination of a session on the role of the private sector in education and health care and another session on sustainable capacity-building for HRH policy and management.