Documents & Reports

Assessing Two Strategies for Expanding Coverage of Adult Male Circumcision in Nyanza Province, Kenya

Two studies were conducted to assess modes of male circumcision (MC) service delivery to support the scale-up of MC for HIV prevention in Kenya in the public sector. Both studies examined clinical outcomes of and client satisfaction for MC services provided through task shifting performed by nonphysician clinician and by trained itinerant clinical officers. [adapted from author]

Policy for Market Based Private Health Care Sector

The Federal Ministry of Health, recognizing the complementary role of the market based private sector in the provision of quality health services at competitive price especially in the underserved areas, developed this policy document to define the role of private v/s public sector, to institute mechanisms for the regulation of health services delivery, setting up and monitoring of the minimum standards of care, and bring into fold the private sector in reporting within the defined parameters. [from author]

Performance Incentives for Improved Maternal Health: Experiences, Challenges, Lessons

This document analalyzes the effectiveness of performance incentive schemes in developing countries that comprise maternal health components, including family planning. [adapted from author]

Influence of the Service Delivery Environment on Family Planning Outcomes in Nigeria

This paper examined the association of the family planning service delivery environment with contraceptive outcomes among males and females in five states of Nigeria, including the impact of health worker training in family planning, and the effect of the provider-client interaction on uptake of modern methods. [adapted from abstract]

Community Health Workers: An Important Resource Towards Achieving the MDGs

Based on lessons learned from Tanzania, this resource advocates for the integration of community health workers (CHWs) into the revised HRH strategic framework, including the development of new strategies to enable CHWs to contribute more effectively to improved maternal and newborn health outcomes. [adapted from author]

Building the Capacity of Kenyan Nurses through eLearning: The AMREF Experience

This report details an eLearning intervention for nurses in Kenya to improve the standards of nursing care by equipping enrolled nurses with the skills to manage new and re-emerging diseases, address the shortage of qualified nurses in Kenya, improve quality of care and achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals. [adapted from author]

Retention of Clinical Officers in Southern Sudan: A Tracer Study of Maridi National Health Training Institute Graduates

The overall goal of the post-graduation tracer survey was to determine the proportion of graduates still working in Southern Sudan, where they have been deployed, their specific duties, and the perceptions of the graduates on the effectiveness of the training program in preparing them for their duties. [adapted from author]

Valuing Health Workers: VSO Health Advocacy Strategy 2009-2014

The advocacy strategy was launched to contribute to the overall achievement stronger, more inclusive and accessible health systems. It aims to raise awareness of the critical shortage of human resources for health in developing countries and bring the voices and expertise of health workers to the attention of policy makers to suggest solutions. [adapted from summary]

Brain Gain: Making Health Worker Migration Work for Rich and Poor Countries

This paper is the outcome of a series of in-depth interviews and group discussions with over 100 African health workers and others at the grassroots to understand their experiences of migration and their ideas for solutions to it. [from summary]

Health Workers in Fragile States: The Case for Investment

This document outlines the important role health workers play in areas suffering from severe crises and makes the case for investing in HRH as central to health system recovery and improved health outcomes. [adapted from author]

Valuing Health Workers: Implementing Sustainable Interventions to Improve Health Worker Motivation

The focus of this study has been to identify the most common causes for the health worker high attrition rate and poor motivation within the health sector, and look at the various solutions that are possible. It brings together the findings of many relevant studies by other authors and identifies the most common reasons for high attrition rates. [adapted from summary]

Valuing Health Workers in Cambodia

The objectives of the research are to come to a better understanding of why health workers adopt behaviours that impact negatively on patients and to look for solutions in policy and practice to improve staff motivation and morale. [from author]

Ugandan Health Workers Speak: The Rewards and the Realities

This report is based on the accounts of 90 Ugandan health workers at the front line. The research explored with them the rewards and the challenges, explanations for perceived poor practices and promising solutions. The interim findings focus on the rewards of being a health worker and how low pay affects them. [from introduction]

Building on the Current Evidence to Strengthen Community-Based Service Delivery Strategies for Promoting Child Survival

This document highlights four community-based health delivery strategies that have demonstrated improvements in child health in high-mortality, low-resource settings and supports the growing recognition that community programs that reach beyond the walls of health care facilities and involve community members as partners have a great potential for further reducing child mortality at low cost. [adapated from author]

Bright Future for Rural Health: Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Rural and Remote Australian Health Care

These case studies from accross Austraila show how rural and remote health professionals are making a difference locally and give insights, approaches and solutions to similar challenges or problems faced elsewhere. Evaluated solutions for many pressing health issues are presented as well as two big policy issues: building sustainable rural primary health care services, and responding to an ageing health workforce. [adapted from foreword]

Textbook of Australian Rural Health

This text describes how rural health professionals and rural communities are currently working towards healthy communities. Significant rural issues are analysed with regard to professional practice and personal lifestyles, as well as how these issues could be addressed by innovative future practice or how they present challenges for learning or teaching. [adapted from author]

Art of Moving from Policy to Action: Lessons Learned from the USAID Health Policy Initiative (2005-2010)

The aim of this paper is to demystify policy implementation and provide user-friendly advice on translating policies into action. To do so, the paper presents experiences and lessons learned from the Health Policy Initiative organized around the project’s Policy-to-Action Framework. [from summary]

Networking for Policy Change: What Works

This paper presents case studies of networks in 11 countries assisted by the POLICY Project to demonstrate how reproductive health advocacy networks were influential actors that played a role in fostering significant policy changes over the past decade. [from summary]

Frontline Health Workers: The Best Way to Save Lives, Accelerate Progress on Global Health, and Help Advance U.S. Interests

This issue brief details the importance of investing in frontline health workers and officially launches the Frontline Health Workers Coalition. [from publisher]

Outreach Services as a Strategy to Increase Access to Health Workers in Remote and Rural Areas

This report presents an overview of outreach services provided by health workers to remote and rural populations in different countries and contexts. It highlights the potential for alternative health service delivery models, such as mobile clinics and telemedicine, to enhance the attraction and retention of health workers in underserved areas. [from preface]

Global Health Workforce Crisis and the 2009 G8 Summit (La Maddalena, Italy): Recommendations from the Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative

This brief advocates for measures and funding needed from G8 to ensure that the Millenium Development Goals are achieved and that countries can provide comprehensive primary health care for all. [adapted from author]

Exploring Ways for Countries to Address Their HRH Crisis

This report presents the outcomes and resources from a meeting of health workforce crisis countries including information on the crisis in the differenct countries; interventions, challenges and shortages; and progress on the development of strategic HRH plans for each of the crisis countries. [adapted from author]

Midwifery in Bangladesh: In-Depth Country Analysis

This background paper for “The State of the World’s Midwifery 2011” provides detailed information on the midwife cadre in Bangladesh, its role in the health system, training and the state of the field.

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences

This technical report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Ministry of Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization and CapacityPlus, using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit. The DCE surveyed health professional students and health workers practicing in rural provinces to investigate their motivational preferences for potential strategies to increase attraction and retention in the country’s rural and remote settings. [from publisher]

Quality Healthcare and Workers on the Move

This report on South Africa is part of a global research project on the origin and destination countries for migration of health workers around the world. It contends that the health and social worker migration must be considered in the broader context of the human right to health and decent work, ethical migration and recruitment processes, global human resources for health and the health related Millennium Development Goals.

Addressing Educational Needs of Health Workers in Ghana Using Distance Education

This paper seeks to analyze the import of distance education for promotion of proficiency skills in the health sector and review ongoing professional development programmes for health workers in Ghana, and come out with strategies to offer training avenues leading to the professional growth of the individuals and economic growth of the country. [from abstract]

Top 12 Issues for Ministries of Health to Consider in Addressing HRH in Public Health Emergencies (PHEs)

Health workers along with other community members and service providers are central to preparing for, and responding to, public health emergencies (PHEs). This policy note presents key considerations for dealing with HRH and PHEs. [from author]

HRH in Public Health Emergencies in Developing Countries: An Overview

This policy note outlines the importance of the health workforce in public health emergencies (PHEs), highlights the causes of PHEs and the subsequent impacts on the health worker and health system, and raises questions around health workforce performance in PHEs. The focus is on developing country contexts. [from introduction]

No Child Out of Reach: Time to End the Health Worker Crisis

This report makes the case for immediate and concrete action, both at the highest
international political level and at the national level in every country with a health worker shortage. [from preface]

Human Resources for Health in Maternal, Neonatal and Reproductive Health at Community Level: A Profile of Timor-Leste

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Timor-Leste: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from summary]