The financial crisis, pandemic, war, and environmental and climate threats of recent years have shown that the global risk scenario can evolve rapidly and that the threats to our societies are complex. Strengthening citizens’ conditions for good health is central to coping with future crises. At the same time, in the welfare sector, health care faces major challenges.
The demand for welfare services, especially health care, is growing at a pace that is leading to a shortage in the labour force. Health care is also not equitable, with regional variations in access to care and differences between women’s and men’s consumption of care. The challenges of rising life expectancy and an ageing population are found throughout the Nordic region.
Alongside the need for increased recruitment, there are major challenges in creating conditions to retain those already working in the healthcare sector. Many occupations in the healthcare sector are female dominated, ethnic minority backgrounds are common, wages are generally low (compared to male-dominated occupations with similar education and skill requirements), and part-time work is more prevalent than in other welfare occupations.
To stimulate a Nordic discussion on the resilience of welfare, the Nordic Council of Ministers has initiated this project, which is being carried out by Nordic Information on Gender, NIKK. The project spans several areas of knowledge, and the knowledge produced is of relevance to several sectors within the Nordic co-operation and therefore contributes to strengthening collaboration between both policy areas and the actors active in them, as well as between researchers and other experts.
The project will result in:
The goal of the project is to contribute knowledge to better understand and analyse challenges and opportunities for making decisions that strengthen crisis preparedness and welfare resilience in the Nordic region with a focus on health care from a gender perspective.
The project’s target group is a broad range of politicians and civil servants in the Nordic region who are responsible for developing welfare policy, as well as researchers. It includes people working at national level as well as within Nordic co-operation.
Lessons learnt from the pandemic showed that crisis management went hand in hand with knowledge development. Research therefore plays an important role in improving the conditions for welfare resilience. How can the Nordic region develop welfare and welfare services based on needs both today and in the future? These are complex issues that need to be addressed from several different perspectives.
Through an open call, the project will therefore bring together experts from different parts of the Nordic region, who will highlight aspects of welfare health care in the Nordic region in a joint publication for good future preparedness. The call is aimed at researchers and doctoral students working in the Nordic region.
Project timespan
2024 – 2025
Commissioned by
Nordiska ministerrådet
Contact
Angelica Simonsson
Budget
1 000 000 DKK
Cooperation partners
Nordic researchers and other experts and the social and gender equality sectors of the Nordic Council of Ministers