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In recent years, a number of specific strategies for improving health services and strengthening health systems have been consistently advocated. In order to advise governments, WHO commissioned this exploratory study to examine more closely the track record of these strategies in twelve low-income countries. [author’s description]

This brief note focuses on the management of sub-national [health] systems and services. It provides a simple framework for analysing current mangerial challenges; it summarises what is known about effective approaches to improve management and what returns from investing in these can be expected, and it outlines some directions for action by the international community. [from author]

The purpose of this paper is to begin to develop consensus about key challenges and effective strategies in working with the non-state sector to achieve public health goals. [Author’s description]

The tools and guidelines collected in this book will assist health program managers, policymakers, and leaders to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS on the health workforce and its capacity to deliver and scale up HIV/AIDS services. The book provides materials to help decision-makers develop a strategy to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS, for both a short-term emergency response and a longer-term plan to strengthen HRM systems. This compilation also includes a tool developed by the World Health Organization to help HIV/AIDS programs to achieve a more sustainable workforce appropriately trained to provide ART.

This primer introduces key aspects of contracting and summarizes key lessons from countries’ experiences in contracting-out. In doing so, it is intended to serve the practical needs of contracting practicioners in developing countries that are considering contracting as a way to deliver RH/FP services. Intended users include country-level decision makers, contract operation managers, and mission officers and advisers from donor agencies. [publisher’s description]

Mystery clients are trained people (usually community members) who visit program facilities in the assumed role of clients, and then report (by completing a survey or through an interview) on their experience. They might be used in an effort to avoid the bias in the service delivery process that often results from having service transactions observed. Mystery clients can also serve to gather a sufficient number of observations of service transactions when the actual volume of service visits is low. [publisher’s description]

Horizons, in collaboration with CARE International and Family Health Trust, conducted a quasiexperimental intervention study to determine which care and support needs of people living with HIV and AIDS and their families could be met by trained youth, and to establish whether youth engaged in formalized care and support activities would increase their adoption of protective behaviors or reduce the stigma faced by members of AIDS-affected households.

The study was conducted in semi-urban and rural communities in two provinces of northern Zambia located 700 to 1,000 kilometers from Lusaka.

World Health Statistics 2006 presents the most recent statistics since 1997 of 50 health indicators for WHO’s 192 Member States. This second edition of World Health Statistics includes an expanded set of statistics, with a particular focus on equity between and within countries. It also introduces a section with 10 highlights in global health statistics for the past year. [publisher’s description]

The report includes a chapter on Health Systems which provides key HRH statistical data.

This report, Action against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific, is intended to serve as a technical report for discussion at the ILO Regional Tripartite Seminar on Action against Sexual Harassment at Work, to be held in Penang, Malaysia from 2 to 4 October, 2001.

The loss of skilled personnel to rich countries is a major concern for many developing countries today. However, large numbers of people from developing countries are also being trained overseas and, of those trained at home, many cannot be absorbed productively into their economies of origin. At the same time, the association between the presence or absence of health personnel and the health status of a population is seen as simplistic and a range of other factors are addressed. This Briefing examines the case for a two-tiered health training system, one for global markets and the other for local markets.

The following guidelines have been developed by a working group of practitioners drawn from clinics, hospitals, congregations and communities. They are intended for use by practitioners from the congregation, community, clinic, and other partners in local responses which are incorporating ART. [Description from preface]

Health systems in industrialized countries are having success with new approaches for evaluating and improving care delivered by clinicians in ambulatory care settings. Described herein is a program which awards recognition to individual physicians or physician groups who deliver high-quality, cost-effective care. [from author’s description]

A brief description of why strengthening human resources informations systems (HRIS) is important, what constitutes an HRIS, and what The Capacity Project has accomplished and learned in this area.

In response to the under-representation of female peer educators in the Geração BIZ Program (GBP), an adolescent sexual and reproductive health program in Mozambique, an operational research study was used to test new strategies for improving recruitment, participation, and retention of female peer educators. The study tested an intervention model to increase the involvement and performance of girls in the GBP.

Evidence Update is a two-page summary of a Cochrane Review of healthcare interventions relevant to people in low-income and middle income-countries. This issue reviews whether lay health workers improve health care delivery and health care outcomes.

The lack of human resources for health (HRH) is increasingly being recognized as a major bottleneck to scaling up antiretroviral treatment (ART), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, whose societies and health systems are hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. In this case study of Swaziland, we describe the current HRH situation in the public sector. We identify major factors that contribute to the crisis, describe policy initiatives to tackle it and base on these a number of projections for the future. Finally, we suggest some areas for further research that may contribute to tackling the HRH crisis in Swaziland.

The objective of this paper is to offer a better understanding of the determinants of geographical imbalances in the distribution of health personnel, and to identify and assess the strategies developed to correct them.

The relationship between poor conditions of employment and work of nursing personnel and shortages is complex. Consequences may include: increased patient morbidity and mortality; greater levels of violence in the workplace; reduced occupational safety and health for remaining personnel; high levels of job dissatisfaction with intention to quit; and unsustainable patterns of health worker migration from developing countries.The Nursing Personnel Convention articulates the kinds of provisions needed to address many of the identified problems. It must be implemented in the greatest number of countries in order to set decent standards of work, boost the professional and political profile of nursing personnel, and provide incentive for nursing personnel to remain in their jobs.

There are substantial differences in the working lives of women and men and this affects their occupational safety and health (OSH). The Community strategy on health and safety at work has mainstreaming, or integrating, gender into occupational safety and health activities as an objective. To support this, the Agency has produced a report examining gender differences in workplace injury and illness, gaps in knowledge and the implications for improving risk prevention. This factsheet summarizes the main findings. [adapted from publisher’s description]

The aim of this report is not only to give a clear overview of gender differences in safety and health at work and how they arise, but also to provide information about what this means for prevention and how a gender-sensitive approach can be taken in occupational safety and health. [from preface]

This report is the outcome of a seminar held in Brussels on 15th June 2004. The aims of the seminar were firstly to share information on gender and occupational safety and health (OSH) issues, including a gender-sensitive approach in OSH and how gender can be mainstreamed into OSH, and secondly to facilitate discussion and debate among EU and national authorities, social partners and experts on how to take forward gender issues in OSH. It includes proposals for taking forward gender issues in OSH. [Publisher’s description]

Imbalance in the cadre mix, number, distribution, and quality of health personnel are major concerns for health planners and policy makers. Many methods were developed and used to project future supply and requirement for health personnel. This paper modified the population-to-physician ratio method, by taking into account the specific characteristics of the Thai health care system, and of the future economic scenarios to project requirements of Thai physicians over the next twenty-five years. [from abstract]

Most human resources for health in developing countries are produced by highly subsidized public institutes. Due to inequity in basic education most health science students are from wealthier urban families. They tend to remain in urban areas after graduation, creating inequitable distribution of health personnel. At the same time the public education institutes are subject to strong bureaucratic inefficiency and usually no systematic quality control system. This paper analyses this situation in Thailand. [adapted from abstract]

Human Resource Development (HRD)is a very important yet very difficult component for effective health care delivery, especially in the public sector. Bureaucratic barriers, discontinuity, ineffective leadership, and lack of systematic approaches are major reasons for failures. A package of HRD strategies were introduced into Yasothon Hospital. This paper describes the detail of the implementation and evaluation of the results. [from abstract]

The objective of this study is to present and analyze different issues relating to the existing workforce in the health services of Bangladesh under the Ministry of Health. [from abstract]