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A group of individuals with expertise in areas such as TB control, human resources (HR) development and health systems (Annex 1) participated in a Consultation on HR Development for TB Control convened jointly by WHO and the Rockefeller Foundation and held at WHO headquarters in Geneva on 27 and 28 August 2003. This report summarizes the results of the consultation and the recommendations presented to the Second ad hoc Committee on the TB Epidemic.

This study provides initial information about current nursing issues that have arisen as a result of health care reform initiatives. Regardless of differences in service models or phases of health sector reform implementation, in all the countries the participating nurses identified many common themes, trends, and changes in nursing practice. The driving forces for change and their intensity have been different in the five countries.

Even though the situation of human resources in health varies between the countries of the Region of the Americas, all of them are confronted by deep imbalances in the availability, composition, and distribution of the work force. These imbalances can be present as acute shortages of health personnel, chronic and persistent problems of inappropriate distribution of the work force with regard to needs, or inequities in composition of health providers in relation to the population served.

This working paper is from the African regional consultative meeting on human resources for health (HRH) in Brazzavile, Congo. It describes the issues in health systems and HRH in the region and outlines the strategies and actions required for improvement. The document also discusses the Observatory of Health Human Resources for Africa, which was proposed as a cooperative network initiative among the countries and different partners of the region to produce the information and knowledge necessary for improving human resources policy decisions, and to share the country experiences in order to improve human resource development in the health services. [adapted from author]

The Family Planning Manager’s Handbook is a standard text in management training courses around the world and has received wide recognition as a practical guide for managers of health and family planning programs. [publisher’s description]

Ensuring the availability of essential drugs and using them appropriately are crucial if limited resources for health care are to be used optimally. While training of health workers throughout Zimbabwe in drug management (including stock management and rational drug use) resulted in significant improvements in a variety of drug use indicators, these achievements could not be sustained, and a new strategy was introduced based on the supervision of primary health care providers.

This module is designed to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals on gender-based violence. Gender-based violence has long remained a feature of family and social life, about which society has preferred to remain silent. GBV takes many forms and affects a large number of women from all parts of the world at different points in their life cycle, from infancy and childhood to adulthood and old age. Health professionals are in a unique position to identify the problem, contribute to its prevention and assist victims.

This book contains a series of case studies which depict the management issues a family planning organization faces in designing and implementing a new community-based distribution (CBD) program for contraceptives. The cases, which take place in a fictional country Momonboro, are based on an actual program initiated in an African country, and reflect the problems and successes which that program experienced.

In an effort to improve the health gain that might be achieved from allocated resources, a sector wide framework has been developed for planning, choosing priorities, and committing funds in accordance with agreed priorities. [from summary]

These job satisfaction surveys are tools intended to gain feedback from providers who have stayed in their positions, providers who have changed jobs and managers in district and facility level health centers in order to measure satisfaction with working conditions.

This paper reports on research investigating the health management information system (HMIS) implementation process in Uganda, utilizing the diffusion of innovation and dynamic equilibrium organizational change models.

The response to AIDS depends largely on people who are themselves getting sick and dying. This is why there is now a need for more targeted interventions to support these health workers, enable them to deliver good care and keep them in their positions. [author’s description]

The shortage of health workers with the right expertise and experience has reached crisis levels in many developing countries. The ability of health services to deliver care depends on the knowledge, skills and motivation of health workers. Without enough skilled staff in the right place at the right time health systems cannot function effectively and populations are left without the treatment and support they need. [author’s description]

This note provides a brief overview of the scope and nature of health workforce challenges in low-income countries; provides a simple framework for organizing the analysis of problems and responses; and outlines possible priority actions at country and international level.

As part of the High-Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals, this issue paper discusses improving health workforce performance as a key factor in meeting MDGs. The required scaling up of interventions towards the MDGs depends on effective health services delivery systems (HSDS). The availability, the skills, the attitudes, motivation, and behaviors of health workers are key to well-functioning HSDS. [adapted from author]

This presentation was part of a High-Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals. Its core messages are: In the poorest countries, human resources are in crisis, yet absolutely critical for achieving the MDGs. Urgently needed is rapid mobilization of an effective workforce for priority national programs, triggering the longer-term building of sustainable capacity and systems. These country-based strategies must be multi-sectoral and engage key stakeholders. Actions should be started immediately to harness the power of human resources for the MDGs.

Various constraints are being experienced in the health delivery systems, namely weak health infrastructure, limited tools, inadequate human resource capacity, limited public financing to the health sector as a whole (and not only to disease specific programs), poor management and planning and lack of integrated health systems and misapplication of human, technical and financial resources. In order to improve health in Africa, inequalities to health service access between and within countries should be addressed within the health system. [author’s description]

The 2009 edition of CHIPS comprises the country profiles and the health databanks for each country and area of the WHO Western Pacific Region. It contains crude data that are supplied either by the health ministries/departments or compiled from national databases and reference libraries. Estimates and adjusted data from various published sources are also used. Every effort is made to update the figures and analyses in CHIPS annually in response to ever-growing demands for current data and information. Clearance by the respective governments is also sought prior to publication.

The document aims to analyse the health system in Sudan, to identify the new challenges brought about by the new context, and on this basis to present a post-conflict strategic framework for the health sector. Chapter 3 presents an overview of the health sector. Available data on infrastructures and human resources indicate wide inequality across states in resource availability.

Through its Safe Motherhood Research Program, the Quality Assurance Project carried out three studies to explore issues regarding competence of skilled birth attendants, the elements that contribute to an enabling environment and the causes of the delay in receiving medical attention after a woman arrives at a healthcare facility in countries with high maternal mortality ratios.

These reports review Rwanda’s healthcare staffing, documents practices and levels of effort in providing HIV/AIDS services, and calculates staffing needs for scale-up. It also discusses such issues as training, management, supervision, job satisfaction, and staff motivation and incentives. [publisher’s description]

This report presents findings from Phase 1 of an assessment of the human resources implications of HIV/AIDS services scale-up in Rwanda. Services covered include voluntary counseling and testing, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and care and treatment, including lab services and drug dispensing. It reports the number and types of staff employed at public and private healthcare sites, estimates the number providing HIV/AIDS services, and identifies employment practices that could facilitate or hinder the human resources scale-up.

This report discusses care provided to 245 women during labor, delivery, and immediate postpartum and their newborns during immediate postpartum. The quality of care for different tasks (e.g., monitoring fetal heart rate) is presented by country, by hospital type, and overall. The report details performance on recommended tasks and should inform program managers and providers in finding similar weaknesses in their own care delivery systems. Report includes 21 data tables and the data collection instrument for observations. [publisher’s description]

Over the past 25 years, Pathfinder has learned many lessons about what makes community-based programs thrive. Outlined in this report are some of the lessons learned and examples of how these programmatic concepts are integrated into our work. [from introduction]

This report discusses issues such as compensation for community health workers, building partnerships, and alternate service delivery options.

The case studies contained in this volume provide a means of exchanging information on the challenges that countries face and the solutions that they are exploring. A companion volume by the European Observatory, Human resources for health in Europe, looked in detail at the key issues affecting the health workforce in Europe. It drew on a series of detailed case studies undertaken to assess the situation in a range of European countries. This volume brings those case studies together. [from foreword]