Partnerships

The model of “health partnerships” or “twinning” between hospitals or health-care training institutions in high-income countries and those in low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) has a role to play in addressing global deficiencies in the quantity, quality and accessibility of human resources for cancer control. [from abstract]

This paper summarizes the outcome of a rapid baseline survey and reveals critical gaps in the policy framework for HRH as well as resource constraint that must be addressed through additional budgets and better articulation of health workforce issues beyond personnel emoluments. The study shows the need for civil society organizations to join hands with development partners, Faith based organizations to advocate and support implementation of specific measures to address well documented HRH challenges. [from introduction]

Research on “human resources for health” (HRH) typically focuses on the public health subsector, despite the World Health Organization’s inclusive definition to the contrary. This qualitative research examines the profile of HRH in six conflict-affected contexts where the public health subsector does not dominate healthcare service provision and HRH is a less coherent and cohesive entity: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Somalia. [from abstract]

Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) respond to high-impact communicable diseases in resource-poor
countries, including health systems support, and are major actors in global health. GHIs could play an important role
in countries affected by armed conflict given these countries commonly have weak health systems and a high
burden of communicable disease. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of two leading GHIs, the Global
Fund and the GAVI Alliance, on the health systems of conflict-affected countries. [from abstract]

Optimizing Performance and Quality (OPQ) is a stakeholder-driven, cyclical process for analyzing human and organizational performance and setting up interventions to improve performance and quality or build on strengths and successes. The OPQ process is a seven-stage process to builds capacity within an organization to recognize and address problems or performance gaps on an ongoing basis. [from resource]

This paper outlines the opportunities and challenges posed by the proposed NHI [National Health Insurance] reforms in South Africa. It begins by explaining the country’s current system of health care provision including its human resource structure, functions and cost implications. It then summarizes the deficits and limitations of the current two-tiered health system and discusses what NHI is trying to achieve within this context and how it hopes to address the problems. [from summary]

While the Millennium Development Goals focused on redressing extreme poverty and its antecedents for people living in developing countries, the post-2015 agenda seeks to redress inequity worldwide, regardless of a country’s development status. Furthermore, to rectify the UN’s top-down approach toward the Millennium Development Goals’ formulation, widespread negotiations are underway that seek to include the voices of people and communities from around the globe to ground each post-2015 development goal.

The study observed the impact of an experimental supportive intervention to India’s malaria control program by location on the individual level. There are various possible reasons that account for the observed divergence across districts. [from abstract]

Fragile and Conflict Affected States present difficult contexts to achieve health system outcomes and are neglected in health systems research. This report presents key debates from the Consultation of the Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Delivery, Liverpool, June, 2014.

Social participation in health systems has been a consistent element of post-independence health policies in east and Southern African (ESA) countries and central to primary health care (PHC). The Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET) 2007 Regional Equity analysis highlighted that social participation and power are key for equitable health systems, and for reclaiming and using resources for health. [from introduction]

The 4-year (2007–2011) Revitalizing Health for All international research program supported 20 research teams located in 15 low- and middle-income countries to explore the strengths and weaknesses of comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) initiatives at their local or national levels. Three different reviewers synthesized each final project report through qualitative analysis to gauge equity in access, community empowerment and participation, social and environmental health determinants. {adapted from abstract]

The importance of health policy and systems research (HPSR) and its role in aiding health system reforms has been increasingly recognized in recent years within the World Health Organization (WHO). An assessment of the 71 WHO Country Cooperation Strategies (CCS) that are publicly available and were published in English in 2012 was completed to determine the extent to which HPSR goals are incorporated at the global level. A review was then conducted using a Medline database search to determine the number of articles published by countries with HPSR goals. [from abstract]

The bottom of the pyramid concept suggests that profit can be made in providing goods and services to poor people, when high volume is combined with low margins. To-date there has been very limited empirical evidence from the health sector concerning the scope and potential for such bottom of the pyramid models. This paper analyzes private for-profit (PFP) providers currently offering services to the poor on a large scale, and assesses the future prospects of bottom of the pyramid models in health. [from abstract]

This document examines ways in which three of these communities of practice supported by MEASURE Evaluation have worked to close knowledge gaps and increase engagement among M&E practitioners. These case studies provide an opportunity to examine networks operating to improve health information systems at the national, regional, and global levels. [from introduction]

The following case study describes and reflects on a partnership between a southern university, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Soul City Institute to establish an academic, competency-based social and behaviour change program serving Southern Africa. [from author]

This article reports on a successful partnership to improve access and reduce family and community resistance to polio vaccination in India. The partners trained thousands of mobilizers from high-risk communities to visit households, promote government-run child immunization services, track children’s immunization history and encourage vaccination of children missing scheduled vaccinations, and mobilize local opinion leaders. [adapted from author]

This research explores the factors that facilitate and impede community health network activation, framing, mobilisation and synthesis.India was selected as a case study as it represents a fertile context in which to explore community health networks given the diversity and density of community health NGOs and the dependency of the health care system on such providers. [adapted from author]

This study found that intersectoral collaboration would ensure effiecient use of current health care workforce to improve the provision of health services and information to adolescents. [adapted from author]

The article describes an international collaboration that helped a Tanzanian school of pharmacy to move from preparing graduates who dispense medicines to preparing pharmacy practice leaders attuned to patient-focused, team-based care in hospitals, and education and surveillance in communities. [adpated from publisher]

This article outlines and reviews a multi-university partnership to address the health workforce crisis in Tanzania by enriching health professional education. [adapted from author]

This article describes the African Health Regulatory Collaborative for Nurses and Midwives, a four-year initiative to increase the collaboration among national stakeholders and help strengthen the capacity of health professional regulatory bodies to reform national regulatory frameworks, and discusses its importance in implementing and sustaining national, regional, and global workforce initiatives. [adapted from abstract]

Although general practitioners and community pharmacists are encouraged to collaborate, a true collaborative relationship does not exist between them. The objective of this article was to identify and analyze factors affecting this collaboration in two regions of Spain. [adapted from abstract]

These guidelines provide a practical, clear, and user-friendly set of actions that human resources for health leaders at the country level can take to successfully launch and sustain stakeholder leadership groups. [from publisher]

Addressing the challenges of the health crisis requires collaboration from multiple sectors and stakeholders with complementary roles. The CCF approach to human resources for health requires establishing and supporting the necessary governance structures for intersectoral coordination and collaboration to plan, implement and monitor health workforce development and retention at the country level, while working through one national HRH plan for an integrated health workforce response. [adapted from foreword]

This brief provides a retrospective view of the Project’s contributions and recommendations in the area of global partnering. [from author]

This report provides a short summary of the key discussion points from a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the 10th and 11th of January 2008. The meeting followed on from the launch of the WHO Guidelines on Task-Shifting and was attended by participants who are actively involved in addressing HRH. [adapted from author]

In response to the critical HRH shortages in Africa, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Office of the US Global Aids Coordinator (OGAC) have been in discussion with a number of African countries to develop strategies and country level actions. The aim is to demonstrate the maximum flexibility of disease specific programmes to support broad based primary care in line with countries’ health plans. This report presents a summary of the main findings from the country visit to Kenya. [from introduction]

This case study looks at the contribution of the Observatório and its members to the development of the public health sector in Brazil. [from introduction]

The Argentine Maternal-Child Health Insurance Program uses an interesting approach of combining output-based contracting with an output-based funding mechanism. Particularly innovative is the combination of enrollment numbers and performance indicators as a way to address the trade off between quantity and quality.

In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, Namibia’s public health sector is carrying out a comprehensive strategy to rapidly hire and deploy professional and non-professional health workers with the aim of providing comprehensive care, counseling and testing, as well as antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). [from executive summary]