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The official report for the 9th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education & Training, which took place from May 28 to 30, 2014 in Kampala, Uganda. [adapted from publisher]

This paper describes how labour market analysis can contribute to a better understanding of the factors behind human resource constraints in the health sector and to a more effective design of policies and interventions to address them. [from abstract]

This tool helps users conduct a concise assessment of a partner organization’s (or potential partner’s) strengths and weaknesses, helping to identify areas where technical assistance will be needed to successfully implement a project. The tool addresses key capacity areas including: human capacity, basic management capacity, M&E capacity, absorptive capacity, and community connectedness. The tool is meant to serve as a guide for interviewing multiple stakeholders at a partner or subgrantee organization. [from introduction]

The study was conducted to better understand the roles and functions of the health workforce responsible for managing patient transitions to and from hospitals and nursing homes in New York’s downstate region to reduce the number of readmissions and to improve care transitions. [adapted from introduction]

This paper explores how e-learning is situated in the drive towards realization of MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] in the African continent.

The Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) was established in 2011 by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in response to key capacity-building challenges facing preservice nursing and midwifery education in Sub-Saharan Africa. NEPI has formed partnerships with governments and key stakeholders in Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, and Zambia and supports 19 nursing and midwifery education institutions and 1 nursing council.

This paper examines the various models, challenges, and evaluative efforts of community-based education (CBE) programs at Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) schools and makes recommendations to strengthen those programs in the African context. [from abstract]

In collaboration with the MEPI eLearning technical working group, CapacityPlus and the MEPI coordinating center organized and conducted a workshop to complete draft eLearning strategic plans for MEPI-supported institutions, share knowledge and experiences, and build a supportive network of eLearning collaborators. The workshop, which was held in Gaborone, Botswana, February 24–27, 2014, brought together representatives from 11 MEPI-supported schools and one MEPI consortium. [from publisher]

CapacityPlus hosted a knowledge-sharing and dissemination event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on March 18. The three-hour program featured presentations on key messages from the 2014 Prince Mahidol Award Conference, which focused on transformative learning for health equity; the World Health Organization’s recommendations for health worker education and retention; and innovative approaches and tools developed by CapacityPlus in collaboration with global and national partners.

This presentation was given at the CapacityPlus knowledge-sharing and dissemination event, Transforming and Scaling Up Health Workforce Education and Training for Health Equity, held on March 18, 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. [from publisher]

Many countries struggle to attract and retain sufficient numbers and types of health workers to provide quality services in rural and remote areas. To encourage country ownership and advocate for use of data for policy-making, the USAID-funded CapacityPlus project developed several tools, including the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit; a companion software product, iHRIS Retain, developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO); and a discrete choice experiment user guide, developed in collaboration with the World Bank and the WHO. [from introduction]

Training is clearly an important contribution towards the development and maintenance of health worker competencies for delivering quality services – but how can we make training more effective, efficient and sustainable? We gathered participants from around the world at a side session to harvest and share experiences, strategies and lessons learnt.
So what did we learn? We’ve conveniently packaged together the questions we discussed along with some of the main lessons learnt here. [adapted from authors]

From 1990 to 2011, contraceptive use in Ethiopia increased nine fold and the total fertility rate fell from 7.0 to 4.8. What are the main elements of this success? We posit that the four most significant factors are: political will, generous donor support, non-governmental and public–private partnerships, and the government’s establishment of a network of health extension workers. In this study, we look at these factors and how their interaction increased the proportion of women having both the desire to use and ability to access contraceptives. [adapted from abstract]

The Ugandan Government has an ambitious goal to reduce unmet need for family planning (FP) from its current 34% to 10% over the next 10 years. This brief shares experiences and lessons from capacity building for Family Planning at the national and district levels in Uganda.[adapted from introduction]

Family planning (FP) services have been available in Nepal for over 50 years, most extensively from the public sector health system, with nongovernmental agencies involved from the very beginning. These services are largely delivered by
facility-based service providers, except for the distribution of condoms and pills and, occasionally,
injectables. Community workers such as VHWs and MCHWs could potentially fill the gap if they were given the necessary knowledge and skills. [adapted from resource]

For decades, family planning programs and other public health programs have utilized community health workers (CHWs) as a way to reach and serve disadvantaged populations, often immigrants leery of government sponsored programs.Despite decades of experience, however, and a substantial body of evidence documenting their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, these efforts continue to be hampered by the lack of a dedicated funding stream—a problem now being addressed by individual states and potentially by a little-noticed provision in the federal health care reform legislation that could provi

The Reference Guide has many practical examples from CHW programs around the world. The contents are in four sections and contain a total of 16 chapters covering such topics as a history of CHW programs, planning, governance and financing, national coordination and partnerships, roles and tasks, recruitment, training, supervision, motivation and incentives, relations with the community and health systems, scaling up, and measurement and data use. [from introduction]

See resource on Recruitment of Community Health Workers

This item is chapter eight in the book Developing and Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs at Scale. This chapter will help readers to consider key questions, recommendations, and challenges for CHW [Community Health Worker] recruitment planning and implementation, including selection, resource availability, and addressing CHW retention. [adapted from introduction]

Knowledge of the relation between health-system factors and child mortality could help to inform health policy in low-income and middle-income countries. We aimed to quantify modifiable health-system factors and their relation with provincial-level heterogeneity in under-5, infant, and neonatal mortality over time in Mozambique. [from abstract]

With this aim, the study looks at the development of policies on human resources for health (HRH) in Sierra Leone over the decade after the conflict (2002–2012). [from abstract]

Quality of care is at the heart of any health care program, and yet it is defined in different ways and is difficult to measure. It is determined not only by the capabilities of health facilities and health providers but also by many other variables. Even among formal research studies, the variables measured differ from study to study. [from introduction]

No study has systematically examined how researchers address cross-cultural adaptation of burnout. We conducted an integrative review to examine how researchers had adapted the instruments to the different contexts. [from abstract]

This research tried to reveal the current situation and to track the future trends of the rural health workforce. By
stratified multistage cluster sampling processes, the baseline data of nationwide longitudinal survey were gathered
from China.

Children from traditionally underserved and marginalized communities have more health problems and less accessible, effective health care delivery than children generally. When children from underserved communities also have special health care needs, the problems they face are further compounded. The engagement of community health workers (CHWs) has emerged as a very promising strategy for addressing the persistent disparities in the delivery of health care and related service to Children with Special Health Care Needs. [from introduction]

In Taiwan, volunteers make a significant contribution to the health workforce. In this paper, we explain the volunteer’s role and describe both the benefits and barriers associated with volunteering as a health worker in Taiwan. We also outline the crucial function of volunteers in supporting community nursing work. [from abstract]

This study examines the delivery of health services by faith-based organizations (FBOs) as a possible alternative to privatization in Uganda, where these not-for-profit health providers have been servicing communities since the second half of the 19th century. Their facilities focus on primary care and operate in rural, under-serviced areas, charging affordable user fees, while also treating those who cannot pay. [from executive summary]

This study investigated factors influencing motivation and retention of HCWs at primary health care facilities in three different settings in Kenya - the remote area of Turkana, the relatively accessible region of Machakos, and the disadvantaged informal urban settlement of Kibera in Nairobi. [from abstract]

Volunteer community health workers (CHWs) are a key approach to improving community-based maternal and child health services in developing countries. A case–control study conducted in response to high dropout rates in the first year of the project showed that financial incentives, social prestige, community approval and household responsibilities were related to early retention in the project. In our present prospective cohort study, we aimed to better understand the factors associated with retention of volunteer CHWs once the project was more mature. [adapted from abstract]

Performance-based incentives (PBIs) aim to counteract weak providers’ performance in health systems of many developing countries by providing rewards that are directly linked to better health outcomes for mothers and their newborns. This paper analyzes and synthesizes the available evidence from published studies on the impact of supply-side PBIs on the quantity and quality of health services for mothers and newborns. This paper reviews evidence from published and grey literature that spans PBI for public-sector facilities, PBI in social insurance reforms, and PBI in NGO contracting.

To determine whether home visits for neonatal care by community health workers can reduce infant and neonatal deaths and stillbirths in resource-limited settings. [from abstract]