Latest Resources

Evidence-Based Planning for Sustainability of Government Reproductive Health Services

This training manual is designed to be used to prepare local government health teams to use evidence-based methods to develop long-term plans to strengthen their Reproductive Health (RH) programs. [from abstract]

Nigeria Private Sector Health Assessment

This document is the result of an assessment of the private sector in Nigeria for the provision of reproductive health and family planning products and services. [from abstract]

Evaluation of Immunization Knowledge, Practices, and Service-delivery in the Private Sector in Cambodia

A study of private-sector immunization services was undertaken to assess scope of practice and quality of care and to identify opportunities for the development of models of collaboration between the public and the private health sector. A questionnaire survey was conducted with health providers at 127 private facili¬ties; clinical practices were directly observed; and a policy forum was held for government representatives, private healthcare providers, and international partners. [from abstract]

Empowering Primary Care Workers to Improve Health Services: Results from Mozambique's Leadership and Management Development Program

The article presents a successful application in Mozambique of a leadership development program created by Management Sciences for Health. [from abstract]

Double Burden of Human Resource and HIV Crises: a Case Study of Malawi

Two crises dominate the health sectors of sub-Saharan African countries: those of human resources and of HIV. There is considerable variation in the extent to which these two phenomena affect sub-Saharan countries, with a few facing extreme levels of both. This paper reviews the continent-wide situation with respect to this double burden before considering the case of Malawi in more detail. [from abstract]

HIV and Human Resources: Competing Priorities or Interconnected Solutions?

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.

National Survey of the Impact of Rapid Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy on Health-Care Workers in Malawi: Effects on Human Resources and Survival

Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. An assessment of health-care worker availability in the region against health system needs for that area reveals stark gaps. This article details the contributing reasons for health-care worker shortages, as well as the effect of these shortages on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected patients. [from abstract]

Human Resource Development and Antiretroviral Treatment in Free State Province, South Africa

This article focuses on professional nurses in a study of patterns of planning, recruitment, training and task allocation associated with an expanding antiretroviral program in the districts of Free State. [from abstract]

Malawi's Emergency Human Resources Program

Malawi’s health human resources initiatives since the late 1990s provide a good example of a comprehensive national scale-up plan for the health workforce. Its Emergency Human Resources Plan has shown modest but promising results. Health worker attrition remains high and tutor supply low, but training capacity has been substantially expanded and Malawi is expected to begin meeting training output targets in 2008. [from introduction]

Ghana: Implementing a National Human Resources for Health Plan

Ghana addresses its serious health workforce shortage and consequent issues with health service delivery through a new human resources strategic plan developed to guide scale-up from 2007 to 2011. [from abstract]

Migration of Health Workers in Kenya: the Impact on Health Service Delivery

This study was conducted to identify determinants, benchmarks and indicators of the costs and benefits and distributional impact of the migration of human resources for health on health services in Kenya and to make policy proposals for intervention. [from abstract]

Health Workforce and International Migration: Can New Zealand Compete?

This paper examines health workforce and migration policies in New Zealand, with a special focus on the international recruitment of doctors and nurses. [from abstract]

Forecasting the Global Shortage of Physicians: an Economic- and Needs-Based Approach

Using the most updated information on the supply of physicians over a 20-year period, this paper projects the size of the future global need for, demand for and supply of physicians to year 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals. [adapted from abstract]

Yielding Very Positive Results: Improving Decentralized HIV Services in Costa Rica

Most Central American hospitals that provide decentralized HIV services struggle with issues such as weak infection prevention practices, poor nutritional care and persistent discriminatory practices. The Capacity Project is helping national HIV programs in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama to improve performance and supervision systems that will help address these issues. [from author]

Understanding and Measuring AIDS-Related Stigma in Health Care Settings: a Developing Country Perspective

This paper reports on AIDS-related stigma baseline findings from a study to evaluate the impact of a stigma-reduction intervention in three large hospitals in New Delhi, India. The study highlights issues particular to the health care sector in limited-resource settings. [from abstract]

Global Knowledge/Local Bodies: Family Planning Service Providers’ Interpretations of Contraceptive Knowledge

This paper examines Tanzanian service providers’ perceptions of contraceptives to shed light on questions of local level dissemination of population knowledge and shaping of identities. The findings suggest that the family planning program serves in a process of differentiation between two groups of local women: the service providers and their clients. [adapted from abstract]

Healthcare Workers' Attitudes Towards Working During Pandemic Influenza: a Multi-Method Study

Healthcare workers (HCWs) will be key players in any response to pandemic influenza, and will be in the front line of exposure to infection. This study is designed to determine the range of factors associated with their responses to the prospect of working through pandemic influenza. The findings will be used to estimate of the likely proportion of HCWs affected by each factor, and how likely it is that they would be willing and/or able to continue to work during an influenza pandemic. [adapted from abstract]

Gender Biases and Discrimination: a Review of Health Care Interpersonal Interactions

This paper maps the context of how gender shapes provider-client interaction and the impact of these interactions; provides a detailed breakdown of the nature of provider-patient interactions and how gender impacts on these interactions from the perspective of patients and providers; and reviews gender-specific policies and program interventions within the health system for improving the interpersonal dimension of health care and hence quality of care. [adapted from executive summary]

From Research to National Expansion: 20 Years’ Experience of Community-Based Management of Childhood Pneumonia in Nepal

This paper describes Nepal’s efforts, starting from the mid-1980s, to develop and implement community-based management of pneumonia. [from abstract]

AWARENESS Project Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Distance Learning Course for Training in the Standard Days Method

This report summarizes key results of the evaluation of a distance learning course in the Standard Days Method. This course responds to a growing demand for low-cost options to training for family planning service providers. This option was considered as a potentially useful alternative to traditional class-room training, which can be both costly and time-consuming. [adapted from abstract]

Cost Effectiveness of Standard Days Method Refresher Trainings Using the Knowledge Improvement Tool in Guatemala

The Knowledge Improvement Tool (KIT) was created to allow family planning supervisors to quickly identify gaps in knowledge of Standard Days Method (SDM) providers, allowing them to provide targeted, effective support during routine supervisory visits. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness and the cost benefit of KIT to other methods of reinforcing SDM provider knowledge. [adapted from author]

Tuberculosis Suspicion and Knowledge Among Private and Public General Practitioners: Questionnaire Based Study in Oman

Early detection of smear positive tuberculosis (TB) cases by smear microscopy requires a high level of suspicion of TB among primary care physicians. The objective of this study is to measure TB suspicion and knowledge among private and public sector general practitioners using clinical vignette-based survey and structured questionnaire. [from abstract]

Improving Retention and Performance in Civil Society in Uganda

This article describes the experience of the Family Life Education Programme, a reproductive health program that provides community-based health services through 40 clinics in five districts of Uganda, in improving retention and performance by using the Human Resource Management Rapid Assessment Tool. [adapted from abstract]

Human Resource Leadership: the Key to Improved Results in Health

Despite rising attention to the acute shortage of health care workers, solutions to the human resource crisis are difficult to achieve, especially in the poorest countries. Although we are aware of the issues and have developed HR strategies, the problem is that some old systems of leading and managing human resources for health do not work in today's context. In these cases and others, a more appropriate mode of leadership, linked to reforming management systems and committed to moving beyond planning to implementation, is essential to the solution. [from abstract]

Has the Navrongo Project in Northern Ghana Been Successful in Altering Fertility Preferences?

This document evaluates the expected change in the reproductive preferences of women due to the presence of volunteers and community health workers providing health service delivery in the communities through the Community Health and Family Planning project. In the communities where there is intervention, women seem to show that their fertility preferences are generally shifting towards small family sizes although the fertility levels are still high. [adapted from author]