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As a group, indigenous Australians are much less healthy and more likely to die at younger ages than their non-indigenous counterparts. Training more indigenous people as health workers could help to reduce these startling inequalities, say experts. [author's description]

This paper reviews the situation and trend in human resources for health and its priority problems in Thailand. It also highlights the issue of the inequitable distribution of doctors. Through several brainstorming sessions among stakeholders, it summarizes a package of recommendations for the future continuous and sustainable knowledge-based human resources for health development. [from abstract]

Section 6, "Developing Human Resources for Health," describes the dire shortage of human resources in the health systems of low and middle income countries and the special challenges posed by this crisis. It touches on ways of addressing shortages of qualified staff and gives several examples of how countries can use technical support to build stronger a health workforce. [author's description]

The Government of Ghana has adopted the WHO focused antenatal care (ANC) package in a move to improve access, quality and continuity of ANC services to pregnant women. As part of these efforts, the Government has exempted fees for ANC clients. The main objective of this study, undertaken by Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), FRONTIERS, and with USAID funding, was to examine the extent to which adaptation of the package influenced quality of care received by pregnant women and its acceptability to both providers and clients. The study used a policy analysis and a situation analysis in ten intervention clinics in which the package had been introduced and four comparison clinics.

To promote the health and survival of mothers and babies, Kenya has adapted the WHO goal-oriented Antenatal Care (ANC) package, popularly known as focused ANC (FANC). The Ministry of Health (MOH) has designed new guidelines for ANC services, placing emphasis on refocusing antenatal care, birth planning and emergency preparedness, and the identification, prevention and management of life threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth. ANC visits are now used as an entry point for a range of other services, thus promoting comprehensive integrated service delivery. A major challenge, however, is whether the Kenyan health care system can cope with the implementation of this package.

This study was carried out to document the current situation regarding continued or in-service training opportunities amongst healthcare workers serving in government (public) health centres within Blantyre District Health office. Knowledge of such a situation would better inform health personnel trainers, professional regulatory bodies, the Ministry of Health and international agencies to design appropriate intervention programs towards professional development of healthcare personnel. [from introduction]

This review of experience in accreditation and external quality assessment systems was produced at the request of the UK Department for International Development in India. The purpose of this review is to describe where External Quality Assessment fits in the broader set of levers that exist for engaging with health care providers and organisations in developing countries in order to improve quality and affordability of care. This information is partially based on theory, but primarily presents lessons learned and experience with accreditation and other assessment methods in both OECD and developing countries.

This report will review the critical elements of quality assessment in Section 1. In the second section it will review the National Health Insurance Fund Act requirements for accreditation and the current means of registering and evaluating health providers. What is needed in accreditation, the options for Tanzania, and the potential problems there may be with accreditation. The final section provides practical guidance for implementing a short-term and longterm strategy for accreditation of NHIF providers and more broadly for all Tanzanian providers. Appendix A provides a practical tool: An Accreditation Survey Instrument for Hospitals.

This article discusses the potential contribution of community health workers to child survival rates. Several trials show substantial reductions in child mortality, particularly through case management of ill children by these types of community interventions. However, community health workers require focussed tasks, adequate remuneration, training, supervision, and the active involvement of the communities in which they work. This article discusses the need for evaluation of programmes for community health workers. [from summary]

The issue of The Manager focuses on designing and improving a package of HIV-related services using a conceptual framework called the Functional Service Delivery Point. The framework can help managers to identify the characteristics that make HIV-related services functional and to deliver these services with strong community and management support. [from editor]

This paper summarizes the importance of improving maternal and reproductive health, the progress made to date and lessons learned, and the major challenges confronting programs today. The paper highlights the progress that some countries, including very poor ones, have made in reducing maternal mortality, but cautions that progress in many countries remains slow. Relying on evidence from the most recent research and survey information, the paper also analyzes the key determinants and evidence on effective interventions for attaining the maternal health MDG. [from abstract]
Section 3 dis

This document presents a framework for analyzing factors affecting the development and implementation of HRH policies and strategies.

This presentation reviews the global experience of contracting and discusses two spedific examples of contracting in Cambodia and Bangladesh.

The focus of McKinsey's research effort is on the HRH constraint, faced by many developing countries, in absorbing development aid and scaling up urgently needed health programs. HRH in this context is defined as the health workers at the front line of healthcare service delivery. The field work necessary to diagnose the problem and identify possible solutions has been initiated in Tanzania. We believe these findings, accounting for certain differences, will be broadly applicable to several developing countries.

This report, Action against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific, is intended to serve as a technical report for discussion at the ILO Regional Tripartite Seminar on Action against Sexual Harassment at Work, to be held in Penang, Malaysia from 2 to 4 October, 2001. The aims of the technical report, prepared for the ILO Regional Tripartite Seminar, are to familiarize participants with the phenomenon of sexual harassment at work and to give an overview of initiatives and good practice for its prevention and elimination as taken by governments, employers’, workers’ and women’s organizations.

The causes of brain drain are complex and interrelated, involving social, political, and economic factors. The necessary responses will therefore be varied and cover an array of areas. Drawing on growing interest and scholarship, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) proposes this plan of action for addressing brain drain and the unequal distribution of health personnel within countries, recommending actions by high-income countries, African governments, WHO, international financial institutions, private businesses, and others. [author's description]

The disparity is staggering. Africa bears one-quarter of the burden of disease around the world yet has barely 3 percent of all health workers. Millions of people across the continent thus suffer needlessly because they cannot obtain medical care from trained personnel. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the crisis is most acute, fully 820,000 additional doctors, nurses, and midwives are needed to provide even the most basic health services. To meet this shortfall, most of the region’s countries would have to increase the size of their health workforce by 140 percent. [author's description]

It is widely acknowledged that Africa’s insufficient health workforce will continue to be a major constraint in attaining the millennium development goals (MDGs) for reducing poverty and disease. The High Level Forum (HLF) in January 2004 also recognized the challenges posed in developing Human Resources for Health (HRH) and the need for actions and strategies to accomplish this. At an international meeting on HRH in Cape Town in September, 2004, the need for an urgent action was highlighted to scale up HRH which requires a concerted action of countries and all other partners and an avenue for action emerged building on a number of efforts in the recent years.

When GHARP set out to recruit new service providers [for preventing mother-to-child transmission], it faced a dilemma. Due to the limited supply of health workers in Guyana, the project needed to avoid recruiting health care providers already working for the MOH. Hiring existing health workers away from their jobs would simple reshuffle the distribution of health workers, rather than add new ones. To address the problem, GHARP staff decided to recruit retired nurses to fill the positions. [from author's description]

This technical brief discusses the shortage of human resources for health (HRH) that threatens the health care delivery system in many countries, particularly in Africa; and promising practices to strengthen HRH including: workforce planning, task shifting, strengthening HR information and management systems, promoting retention and gender equity, and establishing partnerships. [adapted from author]

The purpose of this toolkit is to assist health professionals, health professional associations, and civil society organizations to develop advocacy strategies to address human resource and health financing issues in their countries. [from introduction]

This presentation was given at the Toronto Call to Action for a Decade of Human Resources in Health in the Americas conference and addresses the global HRH crisis, the issues involved, and five action areas to address the problem.

The challenges in the health workforce are well known and clearly documented. What is not so clearly understood is how to address these issues in a comprehensive and integrated manner that will lead to solutions. This editorial presents - and invites comments on - a technical framework intended to raise awareness among donors and multisector organizations outside ministries of health and to guide planning and strategy development at the country level. [abstract]

This presentation was part of the ECSA Regional Health Ministers' Conference. It describes why infection prevention and control is important and what can be done about it.
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This paper addresses an important practical challenge to staff management. We use a case study based on semi-structured interview data to explore the steps that Namibia, a country facing severe health problems that include an alarmingly high AIDS infection rate, has taken to manage its health workers. [from abstract]

This presentation was part of the International Conference on Global Health session, "Answering the Call: Innovations in Human Resources by African Faith-Based Organizations." From the perspective of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau experience, the presentation discusses why the private not-for-profit sector is important in service provision and training; why nurses are in the midst of the human resource crisis; obastacles to increasing the training capacity; and what the PNFP health training institutions are doing to address their weaknesses. [adapted from author]

South Africa has a serious shortage of human and financial resources to provide primary healthcare services especially in the historically under-served areas. It is a tedious task to carry out healthcare delivery for the masses without rationalizing human resources in the form of re-allocation and re-deployment of healthcare personnel. This study aimed to establish the level of adequacy and efficiency of nursing staff in the former Transkei region. The study was carried out in the child and family welfare clinic of the Umtata General Hospital. [from abstract]

Poverty and limited health services in rural Africa present barriers to adherence to antiretroviral therapy that necessitate innovative options other than facility-based methods for delivery and monitoring of such therapy. We assessed adherence to antiretroviral therapy in a cohort of HIV-infected people in a home-based AIDS care programme that provides the therapy and other AIDS care, prevention, and support services in rural Uganda. [author's description]

This paper examines the employment preferences of public sector registered nurses working in Malawi and identifies the range and relative importance of the factors that affect their motivation. The research was designed in the light of the Malawi government’s programme to address the shortage of health workers, which is based on salary top-ups as a means of increasing employee motivation and reducing high rates of attrition. This policy has been adopted despite relatively little quantitative exploration into the employment preferences of health workers in developing countries. This study aims to provide a clearer picture of the preferences of registered nurses about different aspects of their employment, and the factors that might persuade them to continue in the profession within their home country.

This training manual is designed to prepare trainers who already have skills as reproductive health trainers to proceed to a higher level of training implementation. This module prepares them to conduct a training needs assessment, develop detailed plans for training, develop and pilot test a training curriculum, conduct training using more advanced training techniques, conduct training follow up and evaluate training. [publisher's description]