Zambia

Zambia, like many of the countries heavily affected by HIV and AIDS in southern Africa, also faces a shortage of human resources for health. The country receives significant amounts of funding from GHIs for the large-scale provision of antiretroviral treatment through the public and private sector. This paper examines the impact of GHIs on human resources for ART roll-out in Zambia, at national level, in one province and two districts. [from abstract]

This paper examines the impact of Global Health Initiatives on human resources for antiretroviral treatment roll-out in Zambia at a national level, in one province and two districts. [adapted from abstract]

There has been little research on HIV incidence or prevalence among hospital staff worldwide, and even less on modes of transmission among those infected. Recent evidence from South Africa suggests that HIV prevalence among health care personnel may not differ greatly from the general population. This evaluation study describes the significant effect of HIV morbidity and mortality among the workers in Zambia’s health care system. [adapted from introduction]

In what areas do the HIV/AIDS donor programs interact with key operational parts of health systems? To answer it, and to better inform the ongoing discussion of AIDS and health systems, the report investigates and compares the donors’ interactions in three countries (Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia) with three components of health systems: the health information system, the supply chain system for essential medicines, and human resources for health. [from summary] Chapter 4 is dedicated to the HRH aspects of this issue.

This article is an overview of the major HRH issues facing the health system in Zambia, including out-migration, an outdated medical-training infrastructure, faulty government management, and the effects of HIV/AIDS.

This presentation was given at the First Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala. It discusses the Zambia Health Workers Retention Scheme, an incentive program targeting key health worker cadres primarily in rural district to decrease attrition rates of critical service providers. [adapted from author]

This paper examines recent experiences in Zambia, and Ethiopia that illustrate why policy matters for developing the private health sector and underscoring the need for rational regulatory policies and practices. [author’s description]

This paper reports the findings of the PET/QSDS pertaining to human resources for health in Zambia. The Public Expenditure Tracking and Quality of Service Delivery survey (PET/QSDS) was undertaken in mid-2006 to provide quantitative assessment of the state of health service delivery in the country. One component of the survey focused on the management of health personnel, including staff availability, vacancy, absenteeism, and tardiness; staff turnover; staff workload, use of time, and morale; and staff salary and benefits. [from introduction]

In order to resolve the crisis and address the key issues the Ministry of Health has developed a Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan, in consultation with key stakeholders. The strategies and activities outlined in the Plan attempt to address the concerns of all the stakeholders consulted and to provide a framework to guide and direct interventions, investments and decision making in the planning, management and development of human resources for health. [from foreword]

This presentation was given as part of the Christian Health Association’s Conference: CHAs at a Crossroad Towards Achieving Health Millennium Development Goals. It discusses church health institutions and the HR crisis, including staffing levels and attrition; the national response, and details the many efforts of the CHAZ response such as the CHAZ Health Workers’ Retention Scheme.

This study evaluates an intervention to raise healthcare provider morale and retention. Two different incentives-cash and a trophy, awarded to facilities rather than individuals-were tested in two districts. The program was implemented district-wide. Health centers and other small health facilities competed for the awards and were scored on the basis of management system indicators. Interviews with staff in both districts measured the effect of the awards on staff motivation and satisfaction. [publisher’s description]

This study documents the contribution made by religion and religious entities to the struggle for health and wellbeing in Zambia and Lesotho, in a context dominated by poverty, stressed public health systems and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. By mapping and understanding these Religious Health Assets (RHAs), the study calls for a greater appreciation of the potential they have for the struggle against HIV/AIDS and for universal access and offers recommendations for action by both public health and religious leaders at all levels.

The purpose of this technical effort by the Partnerships for Health Reform was to assess various issues, problems, and opportunities facing the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Zambia. This review serves to catalyze and provide input for the development of an effective strategic plan for the UTH and Zambia’s health services in general. Findings from this review provide a basis for recommendations on how to effectively address these issues in order to improve management and, ultimately, positively affect efficiency, quality, equity, and sustainability of services. [from abstract]

To tackle problems of staff shortage and maldistribution, in 2003 the Government of the Republic of Zambia in partnership with the Royal Netherlands Government embarked on a Pilot Zambian Health Workers Retention Scheme (ZHWRS) for health professionals. The scheme had as first objective to replace the Dutch doctors, working under the bilateral agreement between Zambia and the Netherlands. A regular review process was included as part of the scheme. This report is from the Midterm review that took place in January 2005. [from introduction]

The Quality Assurance Project investigated how job aids could increase compliance with guidelines for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) in cooperation with the Zambia Central Board of Health beginning in 1999. One of the first countries to introduce IMCI, Zambia had a large number of IMCI-trained providers, and several IMCI job aids were already in use: a chartbook, recording form, poster, and mother card.

This paper is a desk study which looks at experiences of integrating vertical health programmes into national delivery systems where government and donors have adopted a sector wide approach (SWAp) to supporting health sector reform. It was commissioned to facilitate decision making in SDC regarding future possible integration of the Tanzania Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme into national delivery systems and the SWAp process.[author’s description]

This presentation was part of the Health in Foreign Policy Forum 2006. It covers the face of the human resource for health crisis in Zambia, the migration of health professionals, the impact on health service delivery, current initiatives, country-level solutions, challenges to implementing the HRH strategic plan and options to mitigate the HR crisis in developing countries and the global level. [adapted from author]

The shortage of trained health professionals is among the main obstacles to strengthening low-income countries health systems and to scaling up HIV/AIDS control efforts. Traditional health practitioners are increasingly depicted as key resources to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. An appropriate and effective response to the HIV/AIDS crisis requires reconsideration of the collaboration between traditional and biomedical health providers (THPs and BHPs). The aim of this paper is to explore biomedical and traditional health practitioners experiences of and attitudes towards collaboration and to identify obstacles and potential opportunities for them to collaborate regarding care for patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. [author’s description]

This study aims to examine the range of impacts the [HIV/AIDS] pandemic has had on selected NGO partners of Oxfam operating in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and to make recommendations useful to NGOs, including Oxfam, donors, and policy-makers based on its results. [author’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.

Zambian nurses have been greatly affected by the rise in the morbidity and mortality of nurses with TB. This article explains the impact of TB on the Zambian nursing workforce. Review of Zambian government programmes designed to address this health crisis and targeted interventions to reduce TB among nurses are offered. [abstract]

This study reviews the experience of decentralization in four developing countries: Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and the Philippines. It uses two analytical frameworks to describe and compare the types and degrees of decentralization in each country. The first framework specifies three types of decentralziation: deconcentration, delegation and devolution. The second framework uses a principle agent approach and innovative maps of decision space to define the range of choice for different functions that is transferred from the centre to the periphery of the system. [from abstract]

Zambia’s recently developed hospital accreditation program is a major component of ongoing health sector reforms that have taken place in the country during the last decade. Although Zambia previously had several processes in place for evaluating hospital performance, comprehensive performance standards had not been developed and quality measurement was not standardized.

This review examines the systemic and individual causes of multiple job holding (MJH) and evidence on its prevalence. MJH should be seen as resulting initially from underlying system-related causes. These include overly ambitious efforts by governments to develop and staff extensive delivery systems with insufficient resources. Governments have tried to use a combination of low wages, incentives, exhortations to public service, and regulation to develop these systems.

This report examines whether Zambia’s hospital accreditation program improved health outcomes and other indicators. Performed after an accreditation program had been launched in about 40 hospitals, the evaluation examined eight indicators of healthcare quality at hospitals that had and had not been exposed to the accreditation program.

This report presents the findings of a study conducted at 16 healthcare sites in Zambia offering voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (P-MTCT), and antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. The study period, including design, implementation, and data analysis, was April to June 2003. The purpose of the study was to assist the Government of Zambia in determining whether it will have sufficient staff to be able to scale up VCT, P-MTCT, and ARV treatment to reach its targeted numbers of clients.

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]

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.

Though reforms in the health sector have recently been common around the world, their success has, for a variety of reasons, been mixed. The paper aims to examine and explain the importance of human resources (HR) to the success or failure of health reforms using case studies from Russia, Zambia and the United Kingdom. [from abstract]