Multimedia

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

The starting point for this online database was a comprehensive health workforce survey conducted by the WHO Regional Office for Africa in collaboration with WHO department of human resources for health in Geneva in 2004/2005. All 46 member states of the African Region have contributed to this data collection. The data base presented here is the best available information base on the health workforce in the African Region to date and it will be continuously updated. Data is provided for 23 different types of health care cadres, both as total numbers and densities per 1000 population. For many health care cadres, additional data e.g.

The AVICENNA Directories is a publicly accessible database of schools, colleges, and universities for education of academic professions in health. The database includes medical schools, schools of pharmacy, schools of public health and educational institutions of other academic health professions. For medical educational institutions, this database replaces the World Directory of Medical Schools published by WHO since 1953. [adapted from publisher]

This conference aimed to address the global health care workforce shortage: what has been done and what steps are still needed to solve this critical problem. The meeting linked research, policy and action for global human resources for health. [publisher’s description]

Video and transcripts from both days of the conference are available.

This video clip is 6 minutes and 58 seconds and provides information on the training and retention of health workers in Cape Verde. The majority of the training is done abroad due to poor medical educational facilities in country, and the video communicates the policies and programs Cape Verde has used to ensure trained doctors return to the country as well as how they ensure deployment of doctors to rural areas.

The Population Council and The Pubcomm Group, Inc. have developed simple, inexpensive, user-friendly computerized job aids to assist supervisors in improving the quality of family planning, maternity care, and postabortion care services. The software is free to download. [publisher’s description]

This database contains listings for medical schools all over the world. Users can search by region or by country to access details about the schools available.

GRHAM is a CCIH initiative, in collaboration with numerous partners, to increase the awareness of Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) in providing essential health services around the world. GRHAM strives to put FBOs and Christian Health Associations (CHAs) “on the map” to improve networking, including collaboration with and between christian health associations, medical missions, ministries of health and multilateral donors. [from website description]

This short documentary film chronicles the four year journey, initially funded by USAID’s Office of Population, that the governorate of Aswan, Egypt embarked upon to develop greater leadership within all levels of its health care staff. The video shows an innovative process that develops leaders at all levels, including the front lines of health care, to identify challenges and work in teams to overcome obstacles and achieve service improvements. In their own words, doctors, nurses, and outreach workers of hospitals and clinics throughout the region, tell the story of how they became empowered and what they did to improve health results in family planning and maternal child health. Participants share how they worked to improve health care services and indicators in their own communities and expand the program to health units throughout the region using only the resources at hand. [publisher’s description]

The world is facing a devastating heal worker shortage. This is one of the critical bottlenecks to reaching international health and development goals, including the goal of universal access to HIV treatment, prevention, care and support. Conversely, the HIV epidemic has further exacerbated the health workforce crisis. This session aims to advance global thinking about AIDS, health and development to foster mutually beneficial outcomes by unpacking the synergies between the AIDS and health systems agendas, using their interconnectivity to forge a common agenda, in support of national scaling up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. [from conference summary]

This series of 13 short video scenarios (each between 30 seconds and five minutes long) were produced to trigger discussion about common situations in Caribbean health care settings where HIV and AIDS stigma and discrimination may occur and can be prevented. The videos were produced to be used during HIV and AIDS training for health workers at all levels, including physicians, nurses, lab technicians, janitors and receptionists. A companion Facilitator Guide, provides detailed instructions for effective use of each trigger scenario, including suggested discussion questions and activities. The scenarios portray professional actors in various roles.

The HRH Action Framework presented here is designed to assist governments and health managers to develop and implement strategies to achieve an effective and sustainable health workforce. By using a comprehensive approach, the Framework will help you address staff shortages, uneven distribution of staff, gaps in skills and competencies, low retention and poor motivation, among other challenges. [publisher’s description] This website guides users through the HRH development process using indicators, resources, tools and guidelines.

This resource is coverage from the XVI International AIDS Conference, 2006 and contains the video and podcast from the sessions: “‘Treat, Train, Retain’: The AIDS and Health Workforce Strategy. A Partnership to Address the HRH Crisis Towards Universal Access”; “The Malawian Government’s Emergency Human Resources Programme”; “Human Resources and Public Sector Scale Up – The Way Forward”; and “Health Care for the People.”

The Capacity Project is developing three free and Open Source core software solutions, each addressing a specific human resources for health (HRH) leadership issue: iHRIS Qualify- a training, certification and licensure tracking database; iHRIS Manage- a human resources management system; and iHRIS Plan- workforce planning and modeling software [publisher’s description]

This presentation is from PSP-One’s GHC Expert Panel— Expanding Health Service Access, Quality, and Equity in Developing Countries: The Role of the Private Sector. It presents franchise models for delivering family planning and reproductive health services by the private sector. The presentation slides, video of the seminar, and transcript of the resulting discussion are available.

This video clip is 9 minutes and 43 seconds and describes the community based medical education program for physican education in Malawi. The curiculum requires that doctors must be trained in the communities in which they will work to prevent brain drain. It also discusses the incentives Malawi uses to retain doctors in the rural areas.

The crisis in human resources capacity is widely recognized as one of the most immediate and significant challenges in the global response to AIDS. In 2003, the World Health Organization identified the need for training of 100,000 additional health providers and community treatment supporters in order to accomplish the agency’s AIDS treatment target. This session will look at models for recruiting, training, and supporting community based individuals (including people living with HIV) in the provision of HIV related services. [publisher’s description]


This session from the XVI International AIDS Conference includes presentations on experiences with community-based individuals providing care in the United States, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Considered an introduction to the Performance Improvement Approach in low resource settings. Stages, Steps and Tools presents an easy-to-use guide for finding the root causes of performance problems and then selecting and implementing interventions to fix those deficits. A set of tools can be used independently or in conjunction with other interventions to improve the quality and accessibility of health care services. [

As a key contribution toward increasing human capacity in national health systems, the Capacity Project is hosting a series of Human Resources for Health (HRH) Action Workshops. The initial workshop—held in Johannesburg in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme/Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (UNDP/SACI)—facilitated the exchange of knowledge and best practices in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce.

The three and one-half day workshop brought together 38 HRH leaders from 11 countries (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia).

This 29 minute tutorial discusses personal characteristics or attributes affecting provider performance; how medical culture affects provider performance; how providers relate to clients and the community; systems and social issues affecting provider performance; and why a provider might avoid providing IUDs. [from publisher]

This presentation discusses quality issues in private practice in developing countries, how the government can make licensing and regulation more effective, shifting the quality distribution and the use of accreditation. [adapted from author]

This tool seeks to assist HRH workers and policy makers in a country think through, diagnose, and stimulate dialogue about their HRH challenges by responding to questions and reflecting on the policy implications of their answers.

This video clip is 6 minutes and 48 seconds. It is a brief overview of Tanzania’s use of assistant medical officers and clinical officers to address the shortage of doctors in rural areas. It contains short interviews with health workers and administrators on how these substitute workers are viewed and the role they play in the health system.


You must have access to a media player to see the video. Download instructions are available from the WHO Best Practices in Human Resources for Health Development website.

This course in Training Methods and Continuing Education for Health Workers identifies the role of training and continuing education as an important component of health service and personnel management. Participants will be guided through the steps of planning training and continuing education activities for a range of health workers from managers to village volunteers. The course draws on real life examples from community-directed onchocerciasis control, village health worker programs, and patent medicine vendor training programs, to name a few. [publisher’s description]

When health care workers participating in training are able to transfer their newly acquired knowledge and skills to their jobs, higher levels of performance and sustained improvements in service delivery are likely to result. A joint publication of PRIME II and JHPIEGO, Transfer of Learning uses a dynamic matrix to outline specific steps for supervisors, trainers, learners and co-workers to follow before, during and after a learning intervention to promote the transfer of learning. PRIME II has also created an interactive website based on Transfer of Learning.

This video clip is 8 minutes and 45 seconds and discusses Uganda’s pay reforms and other incentive for health personnel to address the brain drain issue. It also has information on other incentives and programs such as government sponsored grants to health institutions to promote research and the retention of health educators.


You must have access to a media player to see the video. Download instructions are available from the WHO Best Practices in Human Resources for Health Development website.

The webcasts and transcripts from the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiave address the issues of “Extending Physical and Human Capacity” for global health and “Maximizing Returns Through Increased Public/Private/NGO Coordination.”