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As a key contribution toward increasing human capacity in national health systems, the Capacity Project is hosting a series of Human Resources for Health (HRH) Action Workshops. The initial workshop—held in Johannesburg in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme/Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (UNDP/SACI)—facilitated the exchange of knowledge and best practices in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce. The three and one-half day workshop brought together 38 HRH leaders from 11 countries (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). Almost all of the participants are senior HRH directors or practitioners working at the operational level within the Ministry of Health in their respective countries. Two representatives from faith-based organizations also attended.

The International Labour Office (ILO), the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Public Services International (PSI) launched in 2000 a joint programme in order to develop sound policies and practical approaches for the prevention and elimination of violence in the health sector. When the programme was first established and information gaps were identified, it was decided to launch a number of country studies as well as cross-cutting theme studies and to conclude by drafting guidelines to address workplace violence in the health sector.

This paper analyzes shortages of nurses in OECD countries. It defines and describes evidence on current nurse shortages, and analyzes international variability in nurse employment.

The difficulty of ensuring an adequate and appropriate distribution of health services, together with increasing financial pressures in the public sector, are forcing many countries to consider using more rigorous methods for determining staffing levels in the health facilities. The Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) method is one such method. It uses a form of activity analysis (activity standards), together with measures of utilisation and workload to determine staffing requirements. The method provides a vehicle for assessing localised staffing needs that is believable and which at the same time is sharply different to historic methods.

The authors report on a study in which unannounced visits were made to health clinics in Bangladesh with the intention of discovering what fraction of medical professionals were present at their assigned post. This survey represents the first attempt to quantify the extent of the problem on a nationally representative scale. [from abstract]

Four articles by separate authors on institutional responses and policies for managing HIV/AIDS in Africa, with specific emphasis on the role of tertiary institutions, such as schools and colleges. The articles are not specific to health training institutions, but are relevant to this context.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) was established in 1999 to finance and speed the delivery of new and improved vaccines for children in the developing world. Through collaborative leadership and international funding, GAVI aims to improve health in developing countries, increase international public health equity, and serve as a model for others in the global health community. However, this paper questions the extent to which GAVI can actually achieve its goals.

In an effort to understand the flows of funds throughout the health system, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) conducted, for the second time, a National Health Accounts (NHA) estimation. NHA is an internationally recognized tool for measuring health expenditures in a comprehensive manner — one that includes the public, private and donor sectors. By doing so, NHA offers a financial perspective on who is paying for health care, who is managing health care funds and their allocation, and where the funds are going — by type of provider and service. In short, NHA aims to inform policymakers on resource flows for the entire health system so as to assist in making good policy decisions and averting potentially adverse ones.

Some 60 participants from ministries of health, multilateral and bilateral international agencies, foundations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and professional organizations discussed and debated a range of issues in order to contribute to the objectives of this workshop, which were to: further the development of an HRH framework for policies; identify policy questions and agree upon an agenda for development of policy options; identify gaps in evidence and priorities for obtaining evidence on which to base policy; build capacity and partnership for action at country level. [author’s des

This document intends to provide a policy and strategic framework for management of health information, use of information in planning and management of health services and monitoring health sector performance. [from preface]

The synthesis report addresses the issues of the impact of high skilled emigration on developing countries, and the policy mixes and options available to both receiving and sending countries to harness its benefits. The study argues that the feedback or indirect effects of skilled migration can often outweigh any initial negative impacts on developing countries. The challenge is to maximize these benefits through appropriate policies relating to encouraging return migration, retention of manpower, tapping diaspora networks, and productive utilization of remittances.

We develop a principal-agent model to analyze how the behavior of a physician in the
public sector is affected by his activities in the private sector. We show that the physician will have incentives to over-provide medical services when he uses his public activity as a way of increasing his prestige as a private doctor. The health authority only benefits from the physician’s dual practice when it is interested in ensuring a very accurate treatment for the patient. Our analysis provides a theoretical framework in which some actual policies implemented to regulate physicians’ dual practice can be addressed.

The Chinese government has found it impossible to maintain uniform pay levels, particularly in the face of a radical devolution of its own financial management. Health workers have increasingly resorted to informal methods of earning an income. The government considers this to be unprofessional behavior and has used a combination of moral pressure and loss of professional privileges to discourage it.

This report emanates from the results of a study that examined the impact of HIV/AIDS on the public and private health facilities in South Africa, and outlines the subsystems that are affected. Both public and private sector health facilities have reported an increase in the number of patients seeking clinical care for people living with HIV/AIDS, leading to increased admissions to medical and pediatric wards and increased workloads. This study addresses these issues and makes recommendations for managing the HIV/AIDS case load. [from author]

This document is a combined Human Resources Development Plan and Human Resources Strategic Plan for the health and social welfare sector of Lesotho. The Development Plan is presented in Chapters 2 through 5, and the Strategic Plan is presented in Chapter 6. The essential difference between the two is that the HR Development Plan represents a technical assessment of the total labor supply and training requirements for the sector in the absence of any budget or production constraints. It reflects a technical assessment of what is needed and what should be produced and financed if we faced no constraints.

Human resources (HR) constraints have been reported as one of the main barriers to achieving the 2005 global tuberculosis (TB) control targets in 18 of the 22 TB high-burden countries (HBCs); consequently we try to assess the current HR available for TB control in HBCs. A standard questionnaire designed to collect information on staff numbers, skills, training activities and current staff shortages at different health service levels was sent to national TB control programme managers in all HBCs. [From abstract]

This report presents findings from a survey of 252 primary health facilities and 30 local governments carried out in the states of Kogi and Lagos in Nigeria in the latter part of 2002. Nigeria is one of the few countries in the developing world to systematically decentralize the delivery of basic health and education services to locally elected governments. Its health policy has also been guided by the Bamako Initiative to encourage and sustain community participation in primary health care services. The survey data provide systematic evidence on how these institutions of decentralization are functioning at the level local—governments and community based organizations—to deliver primary health service.

The core objective of the plan is national, comprehensive treatment and care for HIV/AIDS with equal access to services, long-term commitment, improvement of Rwanda’s general health services infrastructure beyond HIV/AIDS, and financial transparency. The approach for implementation will involve service integration with existing health system infrastructure, community mobilization, linkage between treatment and care and prevention, multi-country procurement economies of scale, and rapid scale-up and iterative learning based on a collaboratives model.

Ghana is undergoing health sector reforms aimed at achieving greater equity of access to services, improved efficiencies in resource utilization, development of wider linkages with communities and other partners, as well as improved quality of health services. These reforms have strong influences on issues of human resources development, deployment and motivation. [from abstract]

A cautiously optimistic appraisal of the Tanzania Health Interventions Project (TEHIP) in Tanzania, which was designed to test the proposition that mortality and morbidy rates in developing countries could be significantly reduced even with modest resources if health care funding was allocated to cost-effective health interventions more in line with the prevailing local burden of disease. [from preface]

A technical consultation on imbalances in the health workforce was held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 10 to 12 March 2002. The discussions focused on the following main themes: the rationale for WHO’s work on imbalances in the health workforce; developing a conceptual framework for defining imbalances in the health workforce; identifying sources of data required for optimal monitoring of imbalances; and identifying areas for further research. [author’s description]

The National Human Resource Plan is a national guideline for all stakeholders. It outlines broad issues whilst taking the lead in some areas in order to facilitate the resolution of some of the chronic systemic challenges facing the health system. In implementing this plan, all stakeholders will be required to adapt to the guidelines expressed here. It is envisaged that there will be a measure of variation between the provinces, because each province must take into consideration the prevailing conditions and demands on its human resource capacity to plan objectively.

This paper provides a framework for understanding the key factors that affect provider competence. Different methods for measuring competence are discussed, as are criteria for selecting measurement methods. Also, evidence from various research studies on measuring the effectiveness of different assessment techniques is presented. [author’s description]

This WHO strategy aims to set out in clear detail how life-long antiretroviral treatment can be provided to 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries by the end of 2005. Core principles include urgency, equity and sustainability. HIV/AIDS has devastated the populations and health services of many developing countries. We must act now. Further, since this magnitude of scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment has never been attempted before, we must learn by doing. [summary from author]

Many countries are using the strategy of international recruitment to make up for shortages of health professionals. This is often to the detriment of health systems in the poorest parts of the world. Codes of practice on ethical international recruitment or similar instruments are beginning to be introduced at both national and international levels to protect the health systems of vulnerable countries. This study was designed to review the potential impact of existing instruments. [from executive summary]

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 trends and policy issues relating to international mobility of nurses. The increase in knowledge worker migration, which is partly a result of industrialized countries trying to solve skill shortages by recruiting from developing countries, is a key component of current international migration patterns. [author’s description]

The overall objective of this paper is to provide some insights into the effects of the HIV epidemic on human capital in sub-Saharan Africa through a discussion of some of the factors that are operating. It is not intended as a compendium of data on the problem but aims instead to provide an analytical framework for understanding the policy and programming issues. There is an analysis of the impact on the public services in Malawi, a detailed presentation of the impact on education and health and a discussion of issues relating to the measurement of the impact on different productive sectors and the role of different social partners in adjusting to, and managing, the impact.

This paper examines why building HR capacity is important to effective health care reform, assesses the existing evidence on HR capability in the health sector, and draws out lessons from existing practice. Developing HR capability requires investing in the training and development of both HR specialists and line managers/professionals with staff management responsibilities. It is vital that any investment in specialist HR capacity evaluates the different ways to deliver the HR function. To be effective the HR function must develop both an operational and a strategic HR capacity. [author’s sum

Functioning health services are key to making the community of New Orleans livable again. Conversely, a livable community is key to attracting a stable healthcare workforce to New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina forced the entire healthcare workforce to evacuate the City of New Orleans and a large majority of these workers have since found jobs elsewhere, such as in neighboring parishes and Texas. This brief summarizes policy options to create and maintain a healthcare workforce, as well as options to bridge the transition from the current situation to the point at which the interventions will show an effect.