Health Workforce Migration in Asia: Regional Realities, Global Consequences
The Asian Collective for Health Systems (TACHS), with its Secretariat at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), is delighted to invite you for an upcoming webinar titled ‘Health Workforce Migration in Asia: Regional Realities, Global Consequences‘ on Thursday, January 22, 2026 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm (IST).
The webinar will feature a discussion between Johanna Solon Banzon, Director, Health Human Resources Development Bureau, Department of Health, Philippines; Saroj Jayasinghe, Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Sri Lanka; and S. Irudaya Rajan, Chair, International Institute for Migration and Development, India. The discussion will be moderated by Priyanka Tomar, Research Associate, CSEP and Lahiru Kodithuwakku, Public Relations Officer and Former Secretary (2024), Sri Lanka Medical Association.
The event will be available on the CSEP website and YouTube channel upon completion.
About the event
International migration of health workers has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges in global health governance. While global demand for doctors and nurses continues to rise—driven by ageing populations, health system shocks, and workforce shortages in high-income countries—many countries in South and Southeast Asia are experiencing critical workforce gaps of their own. These dynamics raise urgent questions of equity, sustainability, and shared responsibility.
This webinar draws on a recent regional discussion paper developed through consultations with policymakers, experts, and practitioners across South and Southeast Asia. It aims to move the conversation beyond “brain drain” narratives toward a more nuanced understanding of regional realities, global interdependence, and policy-relevant pathways forward.
Speakers
Johanna Solon Banzon
Johanna Solon Banzon is the Director of the Health Human Resources Development Bureau of the Department of Health. As chief of the government’s main health workforce bureau, Director Banzon leads efforts by the Bureau to collaborate with both the supply and demand sectors of the health labor market to ensure adequacy, competence and decent work conditions for the country’s health workers. She has a career in the health sector spanning 31 years.
Before joining the department, she was Director of the Knowledge Management Group (KMG) At the start of the pandemic, she was concurrent Director for Health Intelligence and Knowledge Innovations Team which was at the helm of COVID-19 data analysis and reporting for ZFF sites. She was an administrator of the Ateneo de Manila University and a lecturer for the Ateneo Graduate School of Business Health Unit where she taught Managerial Epidemiology, Health Economics and Community Health Administration.
Saroj Jayasinghe
Professor Saroj Jayasinghe is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is an honorary consultant physician to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo. He is an alumnus of the Faculty and joined the staff as a Lecturer in 1982. He was the Founder Director of the Medical Education Development and Research Centre (MEDARC). His research interests include innovations in clinical teaching, health equity, social determinants of health, and application of complexity science to clinical medicine and population health. He currently heads the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Colombo and co-organises an interdisciplinary Postgraduate Diploma course in Health Development of the University.
S. Irudaya Rajan
S. Irudaya Rajan is Chair of the International Institute for Migration and Development, India and also chair of the KNOMAD (The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) World Bank working group on internal migration and urbanization. Prior to this, he was Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Kerala. Dr. Rajan has close to four decades of research experience.
He is one of the expert committee members to advise the Government of Kerala on Covid-19. He has published in international journals on social, economic, demographic, psychological and political implications of migration on individuals, community, economy, and society. He is the editor of the annual series India Migration Report since 2010 and South Asia Migration Report since 2017 published by Routledge and Founding Editor in Chief, Migration and Development. Dr. Rajan has completed eight rounds of Kerala Migration Survey since 1998 with K C Zachariah (formerly World Bank Demographer) and replicated them in states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Goa in the past and now making progress two new states – Odisha and Jharkhand in 2023.
Moderators
Lahiru Kodithuwakku
Dr Lahiru Kodithuwakku, a medical doctor by profession, trained in public health and disaster management, has been actively involved in disaster preparedness and humanitarian response activities for over a decade in Sri Lanka. He has professional experience in working for Ministry of Health Sri Lanka, World Mosquito Programme (WMP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Sri Lanka. He is a founding member of the Resilience Research, Training and Consulting, and holds the position of the Honorary Secretary of Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) and Editor of the Association Disaster Risk Management Professionals (ADRiMP), Sri Lanka. He also holds the position of Chairperson, Policy and Strategy Technical Committee of the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka.
Priyanka Tomar
Priyanka Tomar is a Research Associate in the Health and Human Development vertical at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). She is a public health researcher with a regional focus on South and Southeast Asia and brings over eight years of experience in policy-oriented research on health systems and human development.
Prior to joining CSEP, she served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. She previously worked in the Health vertical at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, where she contributed to research on health system reforms, the G20 health agenda, food safety regulations, disease prevention, traditional medicine, and migration-related health issues.
She has co-authored several publications on development and public health policy, particularly in the Asian and G20 contexts. Priyanka holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Delhi.
About TACHS
The Asian Collective for Health Systems (TACHS) is a multi-stakeholder platform spanning government, development agencies, academia, and civil society — to strengthen knowledge-sharing and regional collaboration on health in South and Southeast Asia. TACHS is a research initiative and convening platform to engage in discussions on primary healthcare, the intersection of climate, geopolitics and health, with an emphasis on institutions and governance systems.
The Secretariat of The Asian Collective for Health Systems is at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress.
The Asian Collective for Health Systems is being supported by The Gates Foundation.
All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.
Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.
The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is an independent, public policy think tank with a mandate to conduct research and analysis on critical issues facing India and the world and help shape policies that advance sustainable growth and development.