Evaluations & Reviews

Kenya, like many developing countries, suffers from a persistent misalignment between policy, planning and budgeting; resulting in a failure of the government to achieve public sector targets and respond to changing population needs. Research conducted by KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme has found that several years after the adoption of these planning and budgeting tools, the desired linkage between policy, planning and resource allocation in the health sector is far from being realised.

Staff from the Afghan government’s General Director of Pharmaceutical Affairs undertook a five-day study tour to engage with peers in Turkey. They they learned how to design and create relevant strategies, services and partnerships, with a focus on the private sector. Many ways forward emerged that can realistically support a financially sustainable national supply of key pharmaceuticals—many manufactured in Afghanistan. [adapted from resource]

This is a review of the health financing situation in the Republic of Gabon. The book reviews the situation in the country under the lens of the principles of health financing: revenue mobilization for health, risk pooling, and purchasing services. [from abstract]

While concepts such as ‘partnership’ are central to the terminology of private–public mix (PPM), little attention has been paid to how social relations are negotiated among the diverse actors responsible for implementing these inter-sectoral arrangements. India’s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has used intermediary agents to facilitate the involvement of private providers in the expansion of Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS).

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

WHO policy brief that includes recommended policy and program actions for expanding access to Family Planning.

During the three-and-a-half years of implementation, Ethiopia’s [Federal Ministry of Health] developed a new community health strategy for the Health Extension Program consisting of Primary Health Care Units (health centers and health posts) and the Health Development army. [adapted from abstract]

Despite the emphasis on inter-professional collaborative practice and patient safety, inter-professional team working in the trauma setting has received little attention. This paper presents the findings of a scoping review designed to identify the extent and nature of this literature in this setting. [from abstract]

This paper describes the development, delivery, and evaluation of a tailored intervention designed to increase primary health care professionals’ adoption of a national recommendation that women with mild to moderate postnatal depression are referred for psychological therapy as a first stage treatment. [from abstract]

Since the need for additional human resources for health (HRH) was not initially considered by Global Health Initiatives, countries implemented short-term HRH strategies to allow antiretroviral scale-up. Such strategies differed from one country to another and slowly evolved to long-term HRH policies. This study examines the processes and content of the resulting HRH policy shifts in 5 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. [adapted from abstract]

This article summarizes a systematic literature review that aimed to assess the existing evidence base for the roles and effectiveness of lay community health workers in primary and secondary prevention of mental, neurological and substance us disorders in low and middle income countries. [adapted from abstract]

This study evaluated a tool that allows health professionals to report the search objective, cognitive impact, use and patient health benefit associated with health information retrieved from electronic knowledge resources. [adapted from author]

This integrative review of the education and training literature was conducted to identify effective training approaches for health worker continuing professional education and what evidence exists of outcomes derived from this training. [from abstract]

The many functions of health human resources include identifying and managing burnout risk factors for health professionals, while also promoting effective coping. This study of physician burnout aims to show which correlates are most strongly associated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and whether the associations vary across regions and specialties. [adapted from abstract]

This paper presents a framework for assessing the interactions between performance-based financing (meaning performance-based incentives are earned by service providers) and health systems, focusing on low and middle income countries in order to develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating health system reforms in general. [adapted from author]

With the ultimate aim of improving the health status of Ethiopians through the delivery of quality health services by competent health professionals, this guideline helps to establish a CPD system in the country through outlining the process of accreditation of CPD courses and CPD providers and linking CPD with re-licensure. [from author]

This paper reports on a validation study of an assessment tool for junior doctors to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument and to explore the effect of length of experience as a first year post-graduate on assessment scores. [adapted from author]

This report documents the contributions to and impact of faith groups in relation to providing HIV/AIDS and maternal health services, and identifies the challenges to faith groups, at local, national and international levels, in delivering these health services. [adapted from author]

The intent of this report was to conduct extensive literature reviews on community health worker models that have been proven to work and then share those strategies with rural communities so that they do not have to reinvent the wheel. [from introduction]

This review highlights the key strengths and weaknesses associated with performance-based funding (PBF) schemes in their use in low- and middle-income countries. It illustrates the theoretical thinking behind PBF implementation. It also seeks to draw out analysis of the role of African actors in global health diplomacy and decision-making surrounding PBF. [from summary]

This article describes the strategies, human resource developments, service delivery modalities, progress in service coverage, and the challenges in the implementation of the Health Extension Program, a a primary care delivery strategy, to address the challenges and achieve the World Health Organization Millennium Development Goals within a context of limited resources in Ethiopia. [adapted from abstract]

This policy document review identified key health workforce policy issues and gaps in policy development related to primary health care in Vietnam. [adapted from author]

The authors aimed to review the literature on absenteeism from a health system manager’s perspective to inform needed work on this topic and to develop a typology of definitions that might be useful to classify different forms of absenteeism and identify factors associated with absenteeism. [adapted from abstract]

This evaluation aims to describe and analyze peer-to-peer learning among health workers and the spread of better care practices within regions and across regions improve care provided to those needing HIV and AIDS services. [adapted from summary]

This review was designed to find evidence of the effectiveness of CHWs in providing basic preventive and curative MNCH interventions, and to identify the factors that are crucial to their performance. [from abstract]

This review describes international trends and approaches to the planning and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, including the assessment of trainees’ performance. [from summary]

This paper reviews international approaches to commissioning health worker education and how to determine and control the number of places available with educational programs for doctors, nurses and midwives. [adapted from summary]

This review describes international trends and approaches to regulatory and licensing systems and the integration of overseas trained healthcare professionals, including international medical graduates. [from summary]

This paper reviews complementary roles to those of traditional health workers, focusing on extended and expanded scopes of practice. It describes international trends and approaches to the planning and delivery of a health workforce that move away from a structure based on traditional roles and scopes of practice [from author]

The following paper is a synthesis of the findings of researchers on training transfer and efficacy of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Program in Crisis and Post-Crisis Settings in the Asia Pacific Region, which was designed to address sexual and reproductive health in all phases of the disaster cycle, with a particular focus on preparedness and coordinated response and the importance of human resources for an effective response. [adapted from abstract]