Documents & Reports

Health Workforce Challenges: Lessons from Country Experiences

This report is aimed at policy makers both in developing country governments and in international agencies. It was a key input to the second meeting of the High Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals held in Abuja in December 2004. It was written to raise awareness of a looming crisis in human resources for health confronting most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and to help serve as a catalyst for action to avert this crisis.

Healers Abroad: Americans Responding to the Human Resource Crisis in HIV/AIDS

This report explores potential strategies for mobilizing U.S. health personnel and technical experts to assist in the battle against HIV/AIDS in 15 African, Caribbean, and Southeast Asian countries highly affected by the disease. Commissioned by the U.S. Department of State as part of a historic global health initiative—the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—the report presents the results of a study conducted by the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Options for Overseas Placement of U.S. Health Professionals. [Description from author]

Note: Online book

Development and Strengthening of Human Resources Management in the Health Services

This document summarizes the human resources management situation in the region, its determinants, and the projects for its development. To promote improvements in the human resources management function as part of the sectoral changes under way at the national and regional level, the Pan American Health Organization is proposing a series of strategies, actions, and operational tools through the Observatory of Human Resources in Health Sector Reform initiative. [adapted from author]

Cost Estimates: Doubling the Health Workforce in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2010

An initial investment of an estimated $2.0 billion in 2006, rising to an estimated $7.7 billion annually by 2010, is needed from African governments and the collective donor community to double sub-Saharan Africa’s health workforce while increasing its effectiveness, thus making significant progress towards developing the workforces required for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve national and global health goals. [author’s description]

Human Resources Management (HRM) in the Health Sector

Over the last two decades, health sector reform in many countries has been characterized by spirited efforts to bring down costs and reduce gaps in coverage. Various approaches to decentralization and public-private partnerships have been introduced, but there has been hardly any attempt to understand or address the human resources (HR) aspects and implications of such structural changes. This technical brief synthesizes findings from recent publications to help promote general understanding among the various HRM actors, especially advocates and practitioners in developing countries. [from aut

Quick and Dirty Evaluation of Capacity Building

This Praxis Note describes the author’s response to the challenge of documenting and evaluating a capacity building process that had taken place in the Tangababwe Red Cross Society (TRCS). The hope is that it will stimulate ideas and show that even quick and dirty evaluations can prove useful, and are certainly better than nothing. [publisher’s description]

Measuring Capacities: An Illustrative Catalogue to Benchmarks and Indicators

This resource catalogue is a compilation of indicators for assessing capability and effectiveness of organizations and the standards of the environment in which they must operate. Examples of thematic indicators (environment and HIV/AIDS) are also included. This list is not exhaustive. [publisher’s description]