Documents & Reports

There is increasing interest in contracting with the private sector for the delivery of health primary health care services in developing countries. This paper describes the experience with contracting under two large projects in Bangladesh and explores some of the practical issues. [adapted from author]

World Health Statistics 2010 contains WHO’s annual compilation of data from its 193 Member States, and includes a summary of progress towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals and targets. [from publisher]

In Kenya, several medical and pharmacy schools have taken fresh approaches to improving clinical pharmacy. By collaborating and working with national and international partners, they are providing unique pharmacy services to thousands of patients. [adapted from author]

This article outlines a project that deployed short videos on mobile phones designed to motivate health workers and persuade pregnant village women to use health services. The project also asked health workers to record their own videos. The results show evidence that the creation and use of videos helped engage village women in dialogue, showed positive effects toward health worker motivation and learning, and motivated key community influencers to participate in promoting the health workers. [adapted from abstract]

This policy brief highlights results from unannounced visits made to a sample of public health facilities in Machakos District with the intention of documenting the proportion of critical health care workers who were absent from their stations of operation. It also presents policy options to address the problem of absenteeism of critical health providers in the health sector. [from author]

This document describes an approach to developing competencies that can guide interprofessional education and collaborative practice for all professions in a variety of contexts and is the first attempt to develop a Canadian model of interprofessional competencies that is applicable to all health professions. [from author]

This report aims to outline the composition of the nursing workforce in Kenya, including recent trends and dynamics, and describes the involvement of stakeholders, both within and beyond Kenya, in the development of nursing and the nursing workforce. [from summary]

This policy brief provides new insights on recent migration trends for doctors and nurses up to 2008, and discusses the main causes and consequences for destination and origin countries. It presents possible policy responses stressing the importance of international co-operation to address the worldwide scarcity of health workers. [from author]

To confront the common problems in the management and development of human resources for health, the ministry has created policy guidelines for HRH and is defining the competency profiles of health personnel at different levels. This document outlines the process and lessons learned. [adapted from author]

This report outlines a training program for health extension workers in long-acting family planning methods in Ethiopia.

The focus of this study is to assess the level of migration expectation among health care professionals and to determine some of the factors which have pushed - and are likely to continue to push - them to seek employment outside Ghana. [from introduction]

The need for documenting how the AIDS epidemic is affecting the health care personnel has long been recognized. In the specific case of Tanzania which already has a Health Sector HIV/AIDS Strategy it is imperative to have information on how the health system and the health personnel who are expected to spearhead the implementation of that strategy are being affected. This can guide preventive and remedial measures to ensure that the capacity of the system and its personnel for the effective implementation of the Strategy is not unduly compromised. [from author]

The function of this meeting was to gather information on medical and nursing education, including learning from countries and institutions where innovative solutions are already being tested and implemented. The information, summarized in this meeting report, will inform the the development of evidence-based policy guidance that will serve to support countries in their efforts to scale up medical and nursing education. [adapted from author]

This article describes human resources in nursing and the role and status of nurses within the health care system. It also deals with government measures and the foreseeable impact on nursing and health care services. [adapted from introduction]

This report summarizes the findings from research examining the role of the private sector in health systems in developing countries and emphasizes the importance of effective stewardship by governments of their country’s health system, especially given the reality that the private (nonstate) part of the system is large and complex, with major challenges and significant opportunities. [adapted from author]

This brief outlines the barriers to overcome to improve the functioning of the private health sector, the impact, the pros and cons of engaging the privat sector, myths of using provate providers and policy options. [adapted from author]

This paper identifies key considerations for countries and policymakers planning the financing of their health workforce, and is based on an extensive review and synthesis of the literature, research findings, and experience on the financing and economic aspects of health workforce scale-up and improvement. [from author]

This technical brief describes several approaches used to achieve needed changes in reproductive health service delivery practice, and provides recommendations for actions at the local level. [from introduction]

The objectives of this study include documenting the role of the private for-profit sector in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service delivery; establishing whether there are significant differences in the quality of VCT services, particularly in counseling and referral practices, between public, private for-profit, NGO, and mission providers; measuring key VCT service statistics at facilities within each sector; and identify best practices from each sector. [adapted from introduction]

This report highlights how changes in the legal and regulatory environment can facilitate expanded access to family planning and reproductive health services through Africa’s private health sector. Using laws and regulations from three Africa countries - Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria - this report presents a road map on how to review the most important laws governing the private sector, as well as key issues to assess. [from introduction]

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]

The purpose of this report is to provide background information to support the development of guidelines for the integration of internationally educated health professionals into the Ontario workplace. [from summary]

This concept paper summarizes an approach based on the principles of organizational development that is aimed at complementing health information systems (HIS) strengthening efforts to make them more effective. [from summary]

The report is the culmination of a work group tasked with exploring practical and feasible ways for donors and technical agencies to support improvements in public-private interaction in developing countries as a means to accelerate the achievement of widely agreed-upon social objectives: reduced mortality and expanded and more equitable access to health services and essential medicines and products. [from author]

This working paper describes a tool and model for extimating the health worker requirments for scaling up priority health interventions in limited resource areas of sub-Saharan Africa, rooted in the concept of functional job analysis and taking into consideration skill set and quality measures. [adapted from author]

This paper supports the promotion of appropriate standards and practices to ensure quality in FP/RH services at the local level. It argues that investments in written updates of FP/RH norms and standards and their dissemination must be complemented with innovative organizational and management systems strengthening to ensure their use in low-resource settings. [adapted from introduction]

The Capacity Project worked with governments and partners in Central America and Uganda to test approaches for strengthening supervision systems in the health sector, as one component of the Project’s workforce performance support strengthening. [from summary]

Recognizing the need to focus on health worker supply in order to achieve progress on health indicators, the Ministry of Health in Tanzania developed the Twiga Initiative to strengthen health workforce production through. This document outlines the steps taken to improve health worker training and institutions and the challenges involved. [adapted from author]

This report examines demographic, social, and political factors driving the increased international migration of workers to provide long-term care services in developed countries. [from introduction]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the fiscal and macroeconomic implications associated with scaling up health workforce capacity. While these general issues and concepts are relevant in all setting, the focus of the discussion is on low-income countries and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. [from publisher]