Documents & Reports

This report examines trends and policy issues relating to international mobility of nurses. The increase in knowledge worker migration, which is partly a result of industrialized countries trying to solve skill shortages by recruiting from developing countries, is a key component of current international migration patterns. [author’s description]

Functioning health services are key to making the community of New Orleans livable again. Conversely, a livable community is key to attracting a stable healthcare workforce to New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina forced the entire healthcare workforce to evacuate the City of New Orleans and a large majority of these workers have since found jobs elsewhere, such as in neighboring parishes and Texas. This brief summarizes policy options to create and maintain a healthcare workforce, as well as options to bridge the transition from the current situation to the point at which the interventions will show an effect.

This paper examines why building HR capacity is important to effective health care reform, assesses the existing evidence on HR capability in the health sector, and draws out lessons from existing practice. Developing HR capability requires investing in the training and development of both HR specialists and line managers/professionals with staff management responsibilities. It is vital that any investment in specialist HR capacity evaluates the different ways to deliver the HR function. To be effective the HR function must develop both an operational and a strategic HR capacity. [author’s sum

This paper looks at the successes and failures of today’s health care workforce. Hargadon and Plsek argue that our current solutions to the problems in the health workforce are insufficient. To overcome these insufficiencies, they believe that we need to better understand the complexities of the workforce. However, this is not an easy feat, because these problems challenge our traditional mental models of how things should work. [abstract]

This booklet has been prepared to assist policy makers in international organizations, governments and civil society. The authors hope that it will help design, introduce and implement public service and health sector reforms in the most effective and sustainable way, taking into account human resource policies. At the heart of the booklet are a set of critical questions which aim to help policy makers, including all social partners, to construct an effective path through the complex process of reform and restructuring. [author’s description]

The overall aim of the workshop was to identify and agree on priorities for coordinated action in improving human resources for health (HRH) policy and practice, based on a timetable for strategic work involving the agreed participation of different stakeholders. Specific objectives were to improve the performance of health workers/health workforce by: improving understanding of the determinants of successful approaches to workforce development and HRH; developing strategies and the evidence base in relation to the first point; and achieving consensus among stakeholders on a strategy for research, development of knowledge tools, and implementation mechanisms for HRH.

Health services in the UK are benefiting from the collapse of health services in some of the poorest countries of the world due to the widespread and increasing migration of health professionals. Children in these countries are unable to obtain the most basic health services and many die as a consequence. Research summarised in this briefing reveals that current UK policy in this area is ineffective in tackling this inequality. Using Ghana as a case study, it sets out a range of practical suggestions for how the UK Government should respond. [From author]

Provides an overview of a new budgeting approach in Mauritania, developed by the Ministry of Health on the basis of an analysis of the health problems of poor people, their difficulties in accessing health care, and the shortcomings of the health systems in serving them. The document shows how such analysis can inform the budgeting process and reorient public expenditures in the health sector. Budgeting health services in Mauritania have shifted from a line item approach towards performance based programs with specific indicators of success identified both program and region wide. [from author

The present report deals with health financing issues in Malawi and analyzes trends in health expenditures in the 1990s, along with the prospects for improving resource mobilization, allocation and use in the health sector of that country. This review highlights the need to further prioritize the activities under the Malawi National Health Plan so that the plan will be a basis for government policy and budgetary commitments and also an instrument to marshal and orchestrate donor support to the sector. [from foreword]

This report contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. The report reveals an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide. The shortage is most severe in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where health workers are most needed. Focusing on all stages of the health workers’ career lifespan from entry to health training, to job recruitment through to retirement, the report lays out a ten-year action plan in which countries can build their health workforces, with the support of global partners. [from publisher]

The challenge of tackling HIV/AIDS was taken up by African Heads of State at their summit in Abuja in 2001. This led to the Abuja Declaration, the primary goal of which is to reverse the accelerating rate of HIV infection, TB and other related infectious diseases.

This report is based on research carried out by ActionAid International in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe and provides a comparative analysis of the achievements and challenges faced by these four African countries in relation to the Declaration. [Adapted from author]

This document describes USAID’s strategy for combating Tuberculosis. The strategy focuses on four main areas: a) expand and strengthen DOTS, b) increase and strengthen human resource capacity, c) develop and disseminate new tools and strategies, and d) adapt DOTS to address special challenges.

Geographical imbalances in the health workforce have been a consistent feature of nearly all health systems, especially in developing countries. The authors investigate the willingness to work in a rural area among final year nursing and medical students in Ethiopia. Analyzing data obtained from contingent valuation questions, they find that household consumption and the student’s motivation to help the poor, which is their proxy for intrinsic motivation, are the main determinants of willingness to work in a rural area.

In this analysis of the global workforce, the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) - a consortium of more than 100 health leaders - proposes that mobilisation and strengthening of human resources for health, neglected yet critical, is central to combating health crises in some of the world’s poorest countries and for building sustainable health systems in all countries. Nearly all countries are challenged by worker shortage, skill mix imbalance, maldistribution, negative work environment, and weak knowledge base.

The papers presented here cover the main dimensions of HRD (Human Resource Development) in health: planning and managing the workforce, education and training, incentives and working conditions, managing the performance of personnel and policies needed to ensure that investments in human resources produce the benefits to which the investing populations are entitled.

What effect does the increased number of Malawians living with HIV/AIDS have on the public health sector? To address this question, the Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat (CRHCS) and Malawian researchers from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Africa, undertook an assessment to explore the effects of HIV/AIDS on the health workforce. [author’s description]

The 10th edition of the South African Health Review has the major theme of Human Resources for Health (HRH). South Africa has made significant progress in producing policies supportive of a good quality of health for all residents. However, there are challenges and gaps in translating these policies into action. Probably the most important of these challenges is the lack of adequate human resources. [Publisher’s description]

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 human resource (HR) problem in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa has worsened to an extent that it has reached crisis proportions in some countries. Although the gravity of the problem varies across the continent, the situation in some of the countries is so grave that urgent action is needed. A complex set of factors has contributed to this problem, some exogenous, such as the austere fiscal measures introduced by structural adjustment, often resulting in cutbacks in the number of health workers.

This policy brief from the World Health Report 2005 argues that it will not be possible to effectively scale up Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) care without confronting the global health workforce crisis. It highlights how lack of managerial autonomy, gender discrimination and violence in the workplace, dwindling salaries, poor working conditions and some donor interventions have all contributed to a lack of productivity, as well as the rural to urban, public to private and poor to rich country brain drain and migration. The brief argues the need to plan the expansion of the workforce while implementing corrective measures to rehabilitate productivity and morale.

Contracting with non-state entities, including non-governmental organisations, has been proposed as a means for improving health care delivery, and the global experience with such contracts is reviewed here. The ten investigated examples indicate that contracting for the delivery of primary care can be very effective and that improvements can be rapid. [from author]

This report, written for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002, discusses the impact of HIV on the workforce and calls for governments to live up to the benchmark of action agreed to in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment to HIV/AIDS.

Despite their high level of training and medical knowledge, health professionals remain a population that is vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. AIDS-related mortality has been recognized as a significant factor in the loss of trained health staff in high prevalence countries, but little empirical research has been done to quantify the damage. In this study, we applied a case/comparison methodology to estimate the costs of HIV infection in the professional workforce at three Zambian healthcare institutions: Lusaka District Health Management Team, University Teaching Hospital (the national tertiary care hospital) and Kasama District Hospital and Health Management Team. Deaths or medical retirements among professional staff were analyzed wherever the complete personnel records were available, with the exclusion of cases resulting from violence, accident or disease of sudden onset. 108 cases were identified over a three-year period ending in October 2003. Each case was matched with two comparisons of similar age, sex and professional training. Data were collected for both cases and comparisons on absenteeism, compensation and medical care and reimbursement. Data were also collected on death and retirement benefits paid, or owed, to the cases. [author’s description]

This paper summarizes the key issues confronting human resources (HR) in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa and the role that HIV/AIDS has played in exacerbating this crisis. Section I reviews the causes and consequences of this crisis. Section II focuses on the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the crisis. Section III analyzes the constraints faced by recent health initiatives in addressing HR issues. Finally, Section IV provides recommendations on how donors and other partners can address HR issues in a more intensive, sustained, and concerted manner. [summary]

Over the past few years, the human resources situation in the Zambia public sector has reached a point of severe crisis and inability to provide basic health services, primarily due to three interrelated factors. First, the country is losing substantial numbers of health workers to countries that offer better conditions of service, or are changing professions to ones that offer more attractive opportunities. Second, Zambia’s medical and professional schools have a limited capacity to train additional staff.

This handbook, developed for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, describes the nature of successful partnerships: their characteristics, their benefits, their challenges, and provides practical guidance to leaders, managers, and professionals in agricultural research who are using or considering partnerships as a way to achieve greater results. While geared toward the agricultural sector, the material has wide applicability to other sectors.

Designed to assist in re-establishing health services in a context of political and economical instability, this guide provides practical information and tools for rebuilding a health workforce, as well as examples from post-conflict countries. [publisher’s description]

The purpose of this paper is to advocate for and guide planners in the collection and use of appropriate information to develop and manage the health workforce in a manner that enables health systems to respond to the service demands created or worsened by HIV/AIDS. The paper also intends to guide the development of tools for assessing impacts of HIV/AIDS on the health sector. Such tools can assist policymakers, planners, and advocacy groups to shape and accelerate the implementation of national HIV/AIDS policies and programs throughout the continent. [Description from author]

Physicians for Human Rights testimony before the U.S. House International Relations Committee, April 13, 2005 calling for a second Presidential initiative for health in Africa to accelerate the recruitment, retention, training, and rational deployment of skilled health workers while simultaneously continuing to scale up prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

The paper summarizes the rapidly accumulating evidence and growing recognition of the HRH crisis, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The nature of the crisis is briefly outlined, drawing attention to escalating activities, demand and momentum emerging from Africa and other countries calling for appropriate and effective global and regional support. There are clear needs for quality technical work, stronger regional cooperation, harmonization of health systems and global initiatives, and for sound fiscal and migration policies.