Establishment of a Global Pharmacy Workforce Observatory

This initiative is based on the data and case studies from the 2009 and 2012 FIP Global Pharmacy Workforce Reports (www.fip.org/educationreports). FIP and RPS aim to establish a permanent contemporary workforce databank under the Global Pharmacy Workforce Observatory (GPWO).

The FIP and RPS will work together to promote and develop the following, via the GPWO Project Team:

The Global Workforce Observatory (GPWO) – an online database platform for global workforce intelligence that will be hosted by the RPS on behalf of FIP and specifically the FIP Education Initiative (FIPEd). The database platform will be accessible and utilised by FIP Member Organisations and FIP Institutional Members (AIM) as a membership benefit.

The GPWO Project Team will be accountable to FIPEd for the quality and progression of the project and will produce an annual report on progress and use for both RPS and FIPEd.  The Director of the FIPEd Education Development Team will assume day-to-day responsibility for the project, on behalf of FIPEd and the FIPEd Steering Committee will assume responsibility of providing oversight on the quality and progress of the project.  The Royal Pharmaceutical Society will provide expertise and strategic support for this important global project.

Mr Luc Besancon, General Secretary and CEO of FIP welcomes this collaboration; “FIP is clear that we need to provide access to accurate and useful workforce data for our members.  We know that knowledge about the global workforce is needed by both our members and by our United Nations partners, for whom this will be a significant resource for workforce development.  We see this as a high profile collaboration and extend our thanks to the RPS for providing the support required to make this work”.

Mrs Helen Gordon, Chief Executive of the RPS, says “We at the RPS recognise the importance that workforce intelligence plays for the better planning of healthcare, and in this case, pharmaceutical care, to our nations.  We see this as a strategic issue for a professional leadership body, and the RPS has no doubt about the benefit of collaborating with FIP in this project.  Workforce intelligence is vital for workforce development, and workforce development is the cornerstone of professional advancement”.

The GPWO project plan has currently been prepared and a GPWO Memorandum of Understanding between FIP and RPS has been agreed and was formally signed at FIP’s 73rd Annual Congress in Dublin on 1st September; both Chief Executives, together with the President of FIP, Dr Michel Buchmann and the President of the RPS, Mr Martin Astbury, were present at this event.