WHO policy guidelines for health worker retention were launched at an event hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Rural Health, in South Africa. At this event, there was a clear call for countries with large rural populations to adapt the global recommendations to their local contexts. The launch event in South Africa, the call for local adaptation and the fact that South Africa faces a severe crisis in its health workforce provided the impetus for a contextualization of WHO guidelines to local – South African – conditions and needs. Thus, in early 2011, a group of national academic and civil society institutions – the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Rural Health, the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa, the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Rural Health and the University of Cape Town Primary Health Care Directorate – under the leadership of South Africa’s Rural Health Advocacy Project developed a document that adapted WHO’s recommendations for use in South Africa. The document was distributed for stakeholder review in June 2011 and further inputs were subsequently obtained from Rural Rehabilitation South Africa and the South African Committee of Health Sciences Deans. The “final” contextualization document that was released publicly is a “living document” that is intended to be the basis for continuous discussion and ongoing development.13 Inputs from all categories of health workers in South Africa and other stakeholders are still being sought.