Lao PDR

This paper presents experiences with local and regional adaptation and adoption of WHO recommendations. It highlights challenges and lessons learnt in implementation in two countries – the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and South Africa – and provides a broader perspective in two regions – Asia and Europe. At country level, the use of the recommendations facilitated a more structured and focused policy dialogue, which resulted in the development and adoption of more relevant and evidence-based policies. [from abstract]

A discrete choice experiment was conducted to investigate preferences for job characteristics among nursing students and practicing nurses to determine how these groups vary in their respective preferences and to understand whether differing policies may be appropriate for each group. [from abstract]

This technical report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Ministry of Health, in partnership with the World Health Organization and CapacityPlus, using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit. The DCE surveyed health professional students and health workers practicing in rural provinces to investigate their motivational preferences for potential strategies to increase attraction and retention in the country’s rural and remote settings. [from publisher]

This review describes the current state of health leadership and management capacity and issues that affect management performance at the district level in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. [from summary]

This issue of Voices describe an effort to assess health workers’ preferences in order to determine the most effective incentives for rural service. [adapted from author]

This article reports on the successful development of a postgraduate medical training system through a series of international partnerships in Loas over the past decade.

This paper reflects an initial review of aid effectiveness in relation to human resources for health. It asks whether the recent aid effectiveness agenda, as expressed in commitments made to the Paris Declaration, is responding appropriately to the specific needs of HRH and countries’ efforts to strengthen and scale up human resources. [from author]

This article assesses the effectiveness of village health volunteers in performing early diagnosis and treatment to reduce the burden of malaria in Loa PDR. [adapted from abstract]

This report describes an assessment of reproductive health needs in LAO People’s Democratic Republic. Chapter 2 focuses on birth spacing and the health worker’s role. There is a great demand for and interest in birth spacing among women and men in the community. Training of health providers on the different contraceptive methods seemed adequate where the program had been introduced, but client counselling (for new and repeated clients) was limited.

This document contains a country analysis on HRH covering situations, trends, and priority problems including issues in undifferentiated strategies of health sector development for remote areas and the shortage and maldistribution of well trained nurses and community nurses. It also includes a discussion on HRH development, strategies and policies in Lao PDR. [adapted from author]