Documents & Reports

This brief outlines the lessons learned from a 30 year village health improvement project in rural India that integrated community participation and established the value of village health workers.

This article summarizes a project that tested whether mobile learning in combination with social media might provide a solution for the lack of training for health care workers scattered across the country. [adapted from author]

This monograph presents an analysis of the various factors that affect pension adequacy and sustainability in order to improve the understanding of the factors at stake and how they relate to the specific situation of nurses, particularly, though not exclusively, in advanced economies.­ [from summary]

Yemen presents a very challenging environment for delivering health services to rural areas, and Yemen’s conservative culture does not allow women to receive health services from men. Through a pilot program, the Extending Service Delivery assisted midwives with setting up private practices in rural communities where fixed facilities and services do not exist, or are far away. [from author]

This brief is a summary of the key messages from the Global Consultation on Community Health Workers in April 2010. It discusses planning, production and deployment; attraction and retention; and performance management as it relates to community health workers. [adapted from author]

This report is based on findings of a study that analysed the opinions and experiences of Australians who provided humanitarian relief following disasters, in complex emergencies and wars. The issue of human resources within the humanitarian sector is now unquestionably on the agenda, and the identification of important gaps in knowledge within this field is the central thrust for the study which investigated Australian disaster workers from a broad range of health-related fields. [adapted from author]

Each chapter of this report presents a proposed tool that can be used by those involved in finding and using research evidence to support evidence-informed health policymaking. [from author]

Establishing a Public Private Partnership (PPP) requires a legal framework acceptable to all the partners, clarity on the commitment of resources, roles and responsibilities of each partner, as well as accountability to provide a given set of services at a desired level of quality and affordable user charges. This paper describes the design, development and implementation of a PPP for managing urban health services in Ahmedabad city, Gujarat. [adapted from abstract]

Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, this study explores the potential efficacy of non-financial incentives (NFI) proposed by the L10k project, an Ethiopian health extension project. The results of the study outline factors motivating voluntary community health workers, indicate other NFI mechanisms for consideration, and suggest programmatic recommendations. [adapated from publisher]

A technical meeting on strengthening health workforce information systems was held on 10–12 March 2010 in Montreux, Switzerland. The aim of this meeting was to initiate discussion on how to promote a coordinated, harmonized and standardized approach to strengthening country health workforce information and monitoring systems to support policy, planning and research. [from summary]

This report summarizes a a rapid mapping of HRH resources in Pacific Island countries to generate baseline data on the current HRH situation in the region, information on in-country and external education institutions involved in HRH development, and data on external partners providing HRH-related assistance. [adapted from summary]

The period of birth is critical in the life of the mother and the baby. Ideally, it needs to be assisted in a competent manner by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) supported by an enabling environment. This goal has yet to be achieved in all countries. It is essential to upgrade the skills of existing SBAs in managing both the mother and baby, and to supply the necessary resources. Another key strategy is to implement suitable community-based interventions to achieve the required behaviors in family members, health workers, and volunteers to improve newborn health. [abstract]

This report documents some of the processes undertaken to integrate gender and sexuality factors into a maternal health project in Uttar Pradesh, India from 2007-2009. [from foreword]

This document reviews the ISOFI program. The iterative steps of this system focus on building staff and organisational capacity to critically analyse the social construction of gender and explore how gender influences personal values and beliefs and programmatic designs and choices. In turn, through the analysis-reflection-action cycle of the ISOFI Innovation System, staff can help community health providers and other stakeholders to analyse gender issues, reflect on local barriers and opportunities, and make implementation plans to catalyze change. [from author]

This factsheet discusses the roles, resposibilities and impact on maternal mortality of skilled birth attendants.

The data presented here in 46 country fact sheets for all countries in the African Region was collected in a comprehensive HRH data collection exercise in 2005. The HRH country fact sheets presented here are intended to give a brief summary of the HRH situation in each country. [publisher’s description]

The HRH country profiles serve as a tool for systematically presenting the HRH situation, policies and management. They are expected to help to monitor trends, generate regional HRH overviews, provide comparable data between countries and identify points for focused action in countries. They will also serve for a comparison of countries’ responses to similar HRH challenges.

This report presents the results and conclusions of a case study conducted within the broader context of assessing resource flows into the development of human resources for health (HRH). Using the example of Mozambique, it examines whether the emerging policy focus on aid effectiveness responds to the evident needs in scaling up HRH. [from publisher]

This document outlines task shifting, its uses, outlines key findings from research case studies in Uganda and Swaziland, and makes recommendations for the way forward. [adapted from author]

This case study aimed to better understand country-specific policies and regulations on task shifting, health worker attitudes, preferences, required skills, what new types of workers can be brought into the workforce to reduce health manpower deficiencies, and budgetary implications. [adapted from introduction]

The objectives of this case study were to understand the policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in relation to the current roles, responsibilities, and workloads of health workers (especially nurses) within the context of providing high-quality HIV services; explore the policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in the utilization of community health workers and/or people living with HIV to provide peer counseling and related services; and assess the attitudes and perceptions of health workers regarding task shifting. [from summary]

This is the eleventh annual State of the World’s Mothers report. The focus is on the critical shortage of health workers in the developing world and the urgent need for more female health workers to save the lives of mothers, newborn babies and young children. There is a video, and executive summary, the full report and an interactive version of the report. [from publisher]

This case study provides an example of a broad public sector pay for performance approach that incorporates intergovernmental transfers in a decentralized context with rewards for concrete health results at the facility level and the challenges of moving from design to implementation. [from author]

This case study thus describes an example of a private sector pay for performance voucher program targeting reproductive health and offers lessons for countries that are considering implementing similar schemes. [from author]

This case study presents the initial results of the pay-for-performance (P4P) experience of UNIMED-Belo Horizonte, a private, nonprofit organization in Brazil and provides an example of private sector P4P to improve service quality and efficiency. [from author]

The chief objective of this research was to produce a comprehensive assessment of the nurse labor and education markets of the English-speaking Caribbean community (CARICOM). [adapted from summary]

This study explored sector specific components that contribute to positive work environments and job satisfaction for nurses working outside of the acute care sector. Specifically, this study examined the recruitment and retention initiatives being implemented by nursing employers in the community, public health and long-term care sectors in various geographic areas of Ontario. [from summary]

This research brief outlines a study done Belize, Honduras and Guatemala on the current and potential future role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care. [adapted from author]

This report summarizes the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study of FBO involvement in HIV/AIDS in three Central American countries hard hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. It provides an overview of the epidemics in each country studied and the range of HIV prevention and care activities conducted by FBOs. Further, it discusses the facilitators of these activities, as well as the challenges to FBO involvement in HIV prevention and care. [from preface]

In countries where conflict-related and gender-based violence is taking place, the health sector can contribute by providing essential medical interventions and support for survivors, documentation for legal cases, programs that assist in reducing social stigma, and data for effective programming. [from summary]