It is a cooperative initiative among the countries of the Latin American Region and the Caribbean to produce information and knowledge necessary for improving human resources in health policy decisions, and to share the knowledge obtained from the experiences in order to improve the management of human resource development in the health services sector.

The need of producing this knowledge is based in the recognition of specific characteristics of the health human resources:

• Extensive workforce (aprox. 7 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean), majority female, labor intensive activities composed of human knowledge and talent.
• The Public Health sector is the most important employer
• Elevated personnel expense: 60-70% of public health services’ budget
• High technological dynamics and impact
• Complex work relations
• High level of conflict within Labor – Union relations and between Professions
• Weakness in policy formulation and planning
• Split between education-services

The rationale of the Observatory in Health Sector Reform is based in a group of processes that determine the Human Resources Policy, like the influence of State and economic reforms on the health workforce, the limited knowledge about Human Resources in the sector (theory and information) and its effect on the formulation of policies.

The lack of HRH policies conducts to decisions made without appropriate information and knowledge, and this deficit is aggravated within the framework of decentralization of health services that is currently undergoing in most countries.