The world faces a shortfall of approximately 15 million health workers. Yet in lower-income countries, many people who could fill these jobs lack the training that would make them competitive at home or abroad. Global Skill Partnerships (GSPs) were designed to close this gap. They finance training in the worker’s home country, then place graduates either in domestic jobs (the “home” track) or in safe, orderly, and legal jobs abroad (the “abroad” track). When they work, everyone gains. Sending and receiving countries strengthen their health workforces, workers build skills while their families benefit from higher incomes.
Building on an earlier blog introducing GSPs, this post draws on a review of existing programs, labor mobility schemes in Asia and the Pacific, and frameworks including the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Code of Practice and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) mutual recognition agreements. It assesses what the evidence says about GSPs’ effectiveness in delivering quality jobs at home and abroad, and what policymakers should consider before adopting the model in the health sector.
Key insights from the analysis:
1. From “brain drain” to “brain gain.” Emigration of skilled workers is a valid concern, especially in Africa and small island developing states. However, evidence points to potential “brain gain” through at least three mechanisms. GSPs reduce “brain drain” by design. Under the Philippines-Germany GSP, as of April 2025, more than 300 nurses had been trained or were in training, with almost 200 working or planning to work in the Philippines through the “home” track. Prospects for working abroad raise expected returns to health professional education, spurring investment in training in origin countries, particularly by the private sector. In the Philippines, migration incentives were associated with nine additional nurses licensed domestically for every nurse who migrated to the United States.Diasporas further support worker pipelines at home; the German-Kosovar diaspora invested in Heimerer Medical College in Kosovo, with majority of the graduates working domestically.
