Sub-Saharan Africa

Hotline HRH April 2012

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

How to Know What You Need to Do: A Cross-Country Comparison of Maternal Health Guidelines in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania

This study explored clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for maternal health in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Tanzania to compare factors related to CPG use including their content compared with World Health Organization guidelines, their format, and their development processes; and to explore perceptions of their availability and use in practice. The overall purpose was to further the understanding of how to increase CPGs’ potential to improve quality of care for mothers. [adapted from abstract]

Programme Level Implementation of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) Use: Outcomes and Cost of Training Health Workers at Lower Level Health Care Facilities in Uganda

This study describes the process and cost of training to attain competence of lower level health workers to perform malaria RDTs in a public health system setting in eastern Uganda. [from abstract]

Baseline Assessment of HIV Service Provider Productivity and Efficiency in Tanzania

This baseline assessment of HIV/AIDS service providers gathered information on productivity and engagement to develop a set of improved human resource practices that will be integrated into ongoing HIV service delivery. [adapted from summary]

Searching for Common Ground on Incentive Packages for Community Workers and Volunteers in Zambia

This study reviews experiences and lessons learned regarding monetary and non-monetary incentives for community workers. It includes indicative costings and recommendations for further policy and development with regard to the effective recruitment, training and deployment of community workers in Zambia. [adapted from summary]

Task Shifting and HIV/AIDS: Opportunities, Challenges and Proposed Actions for Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper draws on experiences scaling-up antiretroviral treatment in three sub-Saharan African countries (Malawi, South Africa and Lesotho) and highlights the main opportunities and challenges posed by task shifting and proposes specific actions to tackle the challenges. [adapted from summary]

District Health System Reorganization Guideline from a Managerial Perspective

These guidelines are Rwanda’s official guide to the management of a functional district health system and were designed as a daily guide for the duties of the district health team. It traces key roles and responsibilities of each team member. [adapted from foreward]

Text Messages as a Learning Tool for Midwives

This study aimed to assess whether the use of cell phone text messaging to improve access to continuing healthcare education in under-resourced settings is acceptable to South African midwives in both the public and private sectors. [adapted from author]

Scaling Up Family Planning Services in Africa through Christian Health Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

This presentation introduces the Africa Christian Health Association (CHA) Platform, CHA health service coverage; challenges to family planning services; and opportunities and strategies for scaling up family planning and reproductive health services through CHA health workers. [adapted from author]

Africa Christian Health Associations Update October 2010

This issue contains articles on: improving data collection for policy making; increasing impact of FBOs on health and development; profile of the Christian Health Association of Ghana; security challenges for health commodities; and biblical approach to people living with HIV/AIDS. [from author]

Africa Christian Health Associations Update May 2010

This issue includes articles for FBOs on: making advocacy effective in a contemporary setting; country experiences in human resources for health; role of church health coordinating committees in advocacy; monitoring responsiveness in healthcare centres; and an introduction to monitoring and evaluation. [adapted from author]

Promising Retention Practices of the Christian Health Association of Malawi

In order to explain the Christian Health Association of Malawi’a (CHAM) approaches to HRH, this paper gives an overview of CHAM especially its operational structure; reviews HRH data from affiliated institutions; looks at elements faced by CHAM with regards to retention; and analyzes what CHAM has done to promote retention of health workers. [adapted from author]

Understanding Intrinsic Motivation and Performance Factors for Public Sector and Faith-based Facility Health Workers in Uganda

This study in Uganda aimed to untangle the intrinsic motivation, retention, and performance factors for health workers faith-based facilities compared to public sector health workers. [adapted from publisher]

Why Do Health Workers in Rural Tanzania Prefer Public Sector Employment

This article discusses health workers’ preferences for workplace and their perceptions and experiences of the differences in working conditions in the public health sector versus the church-run health facilities in Tanzania. The broader aim is to generate knowledge that can add to debates on health sector management in low-income contexts. [from abstract]

Using the Workload Indicator of Staffing Needs (WISN) Methodology to Assess Work Pressure among the Nursing Staff of Lacor Hospital

This paper demonstrates the use of the workload indicator of staffing needs methodology in determining staffing requirements for the nursing staff in a hospital setting. It shows how the results can be used to assess overstaffing and understaffing as well as determine the work pressure among the different categories of nurses thus providing a basis for effective nurse redistribution to exploit efficiency gains without compromising the quality of services. [from abstract]

Hotline HRH March 2012

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

Human Resources in Health (HRH) Toolkit

The shortage of human resources in health (HRH) in Africa remains severe and continues to be a major impediment to increasing coverage of HIV-related services. This eToolkit is meant to serve as a resource for those dealing with aspects of the HRH crisis, including individuals and organizations who wish to familiarize themselves with the various components of HRH, focusing primarily on Southern Africa. [adapted from author]

Assessment of the Human Resources System in Niger

This report details two assessment in Niger - a rapid assessment of human resources systems including the current recruitment, deployment, reward, supervision, evaluation, training and career advancement systems from the central to the district levels; and a site-level assessments that looked at the impact of those systems on health workers and at their overall engagement. [adapted from summary]

Task Shifting in HIV/AIDS Service Delivery: An Exploratory Study of Expert Patients in Uganda

This study examines the issues, in the Ugandan context, with strategies to shift facility and community-based tasks to “expert patients,” clients who are recruited and trained to provide suport services for other clients in facilities and in communities. [adapted from summary]

Synthesis of Focus Group Discussions with Health Workers in Rwanda

This report summarizes the findings of a qualitative study on health workers’ performance and career in Rwanda to identify bottlenecks, strengths and shortcomings for human resources in the health sector, as perceived by both health workers and users of health services. [adapted from summary]

Discovering the Real World: How Health Workers' Early Work Experience affects their Career Preferences - Findings from the Second Wave of a Cohort Study of Young Ethiopian Doctors and Nurses

This paper summarises the findings from the second wave of a cohort study with health workers in Ethiopia including data on: where they end up and how health workers are distributed; career preferences and how they have changed; what is important in the choice between rural and urban areas; and what drives the likelihood to migrate abroad. [from summary]

Economic Valuations of Community Health Workers' Recompense in Zambia

The objectives of this study were to estimate the economic value of community health workers (CHW), current CHW’s workload and responsibilities, and to obtain a preliminary understanding of CHWs’ opinions of the role they serve in their communities (job satisfaction) and how these services are viewed by members of their communities. [adapted from summary]

Struggling and Coping to Serve: The Zambian Health Workforce as Depicted in the Public Expenditure Tracking and Quality of Service Delivery Survey

This paper reports the findings of the Zambian study pertaining to human resources for health, including issues with high staff vacancies, high rates of absenteeism and tardiness, impact on patients and the coping mechanisms health workers are employing to augment their incomes. [adapted from summary]

Honourable Calling? Findings From the First Wave of a Cohort Study with Final Year Nursing and Medical Students in Ethiopia

This report contains results from descriptive analysis of a cohort study with final year health students in Ethiopia to build a base line for a cohort survey with future health workers and to provide insights on the supply side aspect of human resources in the health sector. [adapted from summary]

Institutions for Health Care Delivery: A Formal Exploration of What Matters to Health Workers

Using qualitative data from Rwanda, this study focuses on four institutional factors that affect health worker performance and career choice: incentives, monitoring arrangements, professional norms and health workers’ intrinsic motivation. It also provides illustrations of three institutional innovations that work, at least in the context of Rwanda: performance pay, the establishment of community health workers and increased attention to the training of health workers. [adapted from introduction]

Where, Why and for How Much: Diversity In Career Preferences Of Future Health Workers In Rwanda

The government of Rwanda has identified human resources for health as one of its policy priorities. This study aims to contribute to building a better understanding of health worker choice and behaviour, and to improve evidence based polcies. [from summary]

Health Worker Preferences for Job Attributes in Ethiopia: Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment

This paper estimates the effectiveness of a range of policy interventions aimed at improving the supply of health workers to rural areas in Ethiopia. Using data from a survey of 861 health workers, it employs stated preference techniques to predict labor market responses of doctors and nurses to changes in rural wages, working conditions, housing bene…ts, and training opportunities. [from abstract]

Harmonisation and Alignment of the eHealth Architecture for Human Resources for Health Administration, Development and Management

To assist in generating further discussion and actions to improve the interoperability of eHealth solutions, the World Bank commissioned this concept paper outlining relevant issues and options on the harmonization and alignment of the eHealth architecture for human resources for health management and development. [adapted from author]

Are You Moonlighting? Using an Item Count Technique to Measure the Prevalence of Dual Job Practice in the Health Sector: A Case Study from Benin

This presentation on moonlighting in the health sector in Benin presents the results of a study which measured the extent of dual job practice in the health sector. [adapted from author]

Human Resources for Health Crisis in Zambia: An Outcome of Health Worker Entry, Exit and Performance within the National Labor Health Market

This paper compiles recent evidence on the Zambian health labor market and provides baseline information on HRH to support the government address its HRH challenges. In addition, the paper analyzes the available evidence on the national health labor market to better understand the number, distribution, and performance of HRH in Zambia and explains HRH outcomes by mapping, assessing, and analyzing pre-service education and labor market dynamics and well as the core factors influencing these dynamics. [from author]