Documents & Reports

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 presents an analysis of the relationship between the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives across countries and the intervention coverage. It demonstrates that health status and levels of coverage are positively associated with health worker density. The purpose of this paper, is to determine whether these relationships are robust to the inclusion of many more countries in the data set.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the various options to allow comparative analysis of inequalities in the distribution of health workers across and within countries, using a single summary measure of this distribution. The paper first presents the scale problem of various inequality indices, then tests how sensitive a simple ratio measure of the distribution of health workers is to changes in scale.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 aims to calculate the workforce implications of demographic changes by projecting future health workforces for developed economies, including Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada. [from publisher]

This background study to the World Health Report 2006 is an attempt to provide a preliminary analysis of inflow and outflow patterns of health service providers in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is limited only to three types of health workers—doctors, nurses and midwives—and to countries in the region with critical shortages of health workers. [from publisher]

Managing health workforce expenditure requires the generation of evidence in order to support informed policy decisions. This background paper for the World Health Report 2006 takes a step forward in exploring HRH expenditures and presents the results of a first measurement for the health workforce in WHO Member States in the years 1998–2003. [from publisher]

The overall objective of this background paper for the World Health Report 2006 is to describe variations in health worker wages across countries. However, where data are available, the authors explore variations within countries between health workers and comparable professionals. The main issues of standardization and comparability are discussed. The results are a first attempt to understand the nature of the variability of wages across settings. [from publisher]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 describes the approaches followed in assembling the global database as well as some preliminary analysis of the content of the source data. The broad picture of health workers worldwide is examined and some useful strategies for improving health workforce statistics are highlighted. [from publisher]

This issue of Voices highlights the Capacity Project’s success in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce and its impact on health systems strengthening. [from publisher]

This book explores a new approach to health funding, the transfer of money or goods to patients or providers when they take health-related actions or achieve performance targets. It documents a host of experiences with incentives for maternal and child health care, tuberculosis, child nutrition, HIV/AIDS, chronic conditions and more. [from publisher]

The objective of this study was to field test tools designed to measure stigma and discrimination against patient with HIV/AIDS in the Kenyan context, focusing on facilities and providers of health services. [adapted from summary]

This brief outlines the teaching of management theory in a training centre for government health workers in Peshawar, Pakistan. The study finds that imposing western principles of management is often inappropriate. Training must build on the strengths and address the weaknesses of local management styles in a sensitive manner. [from author]

This paper presents the experiences, impact and lessons of the innovative approach of working with traditional healers in HIV and TB prevention and control programmes, especially at the primary health care level. [from abstract]

The Kenya Treatment Access Movement has mobilized healthcare workers from across the country to facilitate formation of a national network for HIV-positive healthcare workers. The network’s mission is to act as an advocate for all healthcare workers living with or affected by HIV, helping to reduce stigma and discrimination, increase their visibility, and expand access to treatment, care, and support services. [from author]

This report presents research findings on the potential for making contraceptives, and in particular injectable contraceptives, widely available through using a community-based distribution approach which would expand the cadre of providers authorized to provide contraceptives to include health surveillance assistants and community-based distribution agents. [adapted from summary]

This draft policy framework is intended to provide an effective and efficient occupational workforce to support a comprehensive multidisciplinary health care service; strengthen partnerships between government, civil society and communities to consolidate, manage and focus the services offered by Community Care Workers; and delineate strategies that address systemic change within the complex systems both within the public sector and its partners. [from introduction]

This report presents the consolidated findings from the desk review and the in-country assessment, as well as recommendations for interventions that could strengthen the role private health care providers can play in achieving health sector objectives. [from summary]

The nursing service of a Quebec-based health and social services centre has developed an evidence-informed approach to capture knowledge from experienced nurses, and transfer it to new nursing staff. The project has increased the success rate of new nurse orientations and retention, and has reduced the reliance on supplemental nursing resources. [adapted from author]

This paper focuses on some of the challenges and the opportunities created by migration of nurses, specifically focusing on the issue of return. Divided into five main sections, the paper looks at migration and population mobility in general to set the context, then focuses on the migration of health professionals. [from summary]

This study was designed to document the role and experience of health professionals with significant responsibility for human resource management (HRM); identify the challenges that these health professionals face; identify additional skills and knowledge needed by these health professionals to address HRM challenges; solicit recommendations for changes in pre-service and in-service HRM training. [from summary]

Many developing countries face strains in meeting the demands for provision of health services because of limited medical personnel. This has led to renewed interest in task sharing, also known as task shifting. A key feature of task sharing is that those with less medical or paramedical training can provide some of the same services with the same quality as those with more training. [from author]

This paper presents what the Capacity Project learned about various forms of gender discrimination and how they serve as barriers to health workforce participation, against the backdrop of the global gender and HRH literature. It points to the central roles played by pregnancy discrimination in weakening women’s ties to the health workforce, and occupational segregation in limiting men’s role in the development of a robust informal HIV/AIDS caregiving workforce.

In Lesotho, as in many other countries, the HIV and AIDS care burden falls on the shoulders of women and girls in unpaid, invisible household and community work. This gender inequity in HRH needs to be addressed to ensure fair and sustainable responses to the need for home and community-based HIV/AIDS care and support. The Capacity Project addressed these issues through a study of men as providers of HIV/AIDS care and support. [from author]

As the Capacity Project has worked to strengthen HRH systems to implement quality health programs in developing countries, it has systematically focused on how differences and inequalities affect women’s and men’s opportunities for education, training and occupational choice. In Rwanda, the Project helped the government follow through on its national policy commitments to gender equality by conducting a study of workplace violence and gender discrimination as barriers to workforce participation. [from author]

The Capacity Project offered technical support to Rwanda’s Ministry of Health to develop the capacity of the district hospital clinical workforce in order to expand client access to a full range of quality FP methods. These included long-acting and permanent methods and vasectomy in particular. [from author]

This legacy brief describes the knowledge management principles and successful initiatives of the Capacity Project such as the HRH Global Resource Center, the HRH Action Framework, the Uganda Ministry of Health KM Portal and health information libraries.

Obstetricians, gynaecologists, family physicians, midwives, nurses, and other reproductive health care providers, along with their professional associations, are on the front lines to promote and to protect women’s reproductive health and rights through the clinical services they already provide. Health professionals are also well positioned to address the root causes of many of these problems: inequality, discrimination, and a lack of respect for sexual and reproductive rights. [from introduction]

These yearly reports reflect the key milestones achieved by the department in its quest to improve the health status of South Africans, through the delivery of accessible, caring and good quality services. Most importantly, the report also reflects the department’s limitations and constraints encountered during the reporting period, which will have to be addressed going forward. [from foreword]

The author outlines the results of the Emergency Hiring Plan which was designed to quickly hire and train large numbers of qualified health workers in Kenya and deploy them where they are most needed. [adapted from author]

The Health Sector Strategic Plan II 2005/06 – 2009/10 represents a consolidation and extension of the achievements of HSSP I and focuses on health promotion and prevention, including the provision of basic curative services. The HSSP II emphasizes the role of communities/households and individuals ownership for health and health services and defines the planned investments for achieving an optimal balance for scaling up the priority interventions within the available resource envelope.[adapted from summary]

A researcher from the University of Surrey (UK) proposes a basic framework for estimating relative shortages of medical personnel in rural and urban areas of developing countries. The author distinguishes between qualified doctors, trained non-doctors and untrained non-doctors. Using data for Ujjain district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, the author then estimates their impact on the quality of health care available. [from author]