Documents & Reports

Medical doctors and nurses in Bangladesh are concentrated in urban secondary and tertiary hospitals, while 70% of the population lives in rural areas. This situation has created a major challenge for the national health system, particularly for reducing the high maternal mortality rate, with fewer than 20% of births being attended by a skilled birth attendant. The Declaration of Safe Motherhood was desgined to address this issue, supportetd by a number of national programs and strategies. [from summary]

Ethiopia suffers from an acute shortage of health workers at every level, and rural areas in which 85% of the population live have been particularly chronically under-served. The Ministry of Health chose to focus on community level provision, initiating the Health Extension Programme in 2004. This is outlined in the current Health Sector Development Plan, which focuses on both human resource development and the construction and rehabilitation of facilities. [adapted from introduction]

A Health Management Information System (HMIS) can be a powerful tool to make health care delivery more effective and far more efficient. This paper describes how an HMIS can also be used for organisational development and reports on the experiences of the HMIS programme of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB) in Uganda. [from abstract]

Governments in developing countries are challenged to meet the health needs of their populations because of financial constraints, limited human resources, and weak health infrastructure. The private sector can help expand access to and quality of reproductive health services through its resources, expertise, and infrastructure.

The Mothers’ Support Group empowers mothers and mother-to-be to access peer-based support and make linkages to services such as family planning, infant-feeding, counseling, nutriotional guidance, antiretroviral therapy, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and health institutional delivery. [from author]

Traditionally, faith-based health organisations have been important health care providers in many remote and other under-serviced areas. Currently, these facilities bear the brunt of the competition for scarce human resources. It is important for faith-based organisations to learn from recent experiences and from the creative ways in which colleagues seek to retain their health workers and improve quality of human resource management. [from preface]

Insufficient attention has been paid to understanding what determines the performance of health workers and how they make labor market choices. This paper reports on findings from focus group discussions with both health workers and users of health services in Ethiopia. We describe performance problems identified by both health users and health workers participating in the focus group discussions including absenteeism and shirking, pilfering drugs and materials, informal health care provision and illicit charging, and corruption.

This report assesses progress on the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on child mortality and maternal health and proposes best strategies for reaching them. Chapeter 3 (p.81) discusses the impact of skilled attendance and emergency obstetric care on maternal and child survival rates, and chapter 4 (p.119) outlines the broader importance of health workforce management to maternal and child health. [adapted from author]

The results of this survey shed light on several aspects of problems faced by reproductive health services regarding provider performance, equipment and supplies in facilities and laboratories, availability of medicine, initial staff qualification and in-service training, and supervision of health care providers. The results will serve as a guide for monitoring and evaluation of maternal and child health programs, reproductive health programs, HIV/AIDS programs, and other infectious diseases programs. [from preface]

This assessment was designed to provide detailed information on the availability and quality of facility infrastructure, resources, and management systems. Detailed information was also collected on services for child health, family planning, maternal health, antenatal care, and delivery care. Furthermore, selected infectious diseases, namely STIs and tuberculosis, were also covered under the survey. Information was collected on the capacity of health facilities to provide quality HIV/AIDS services.

This study focused on factors associated with the readiness of Kenyan health facilities to provide quality and appropriate care to family planning clientele; the degree to which health care providers foster informed selection of an appropriate contraceptive method; and the extent to which clients perceive services to be of high quality. [from abstract]

Given the worrying trends in infant and child mortality rates, there is a clear need to assess current practices in the management of childhood illnesses and to identify opportunities for intervention. The 2004 Kenya Service Provision Assessment Survey (KSPA) findings indicate that most health care providers are not taking care of sick children holistically, but rather are treating children only for the presenting illness.

Empirical investigations of health worker training in Kenya have been limited to mappings of health service providers in terms of cadre and distribution and assessments of the training needs for various skills. However, there has not been a comprehensive study of the influence of training on the provision of quality Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC). We seek to fill this gap by assessing the link between health provider training and practice with regard to the provision of EmOC. [from author]

A growing number of international donors are promoting an expansion of private-sector health-care delivery to achieve universal and equitable access. But this paper shows there is an urgent need to reassess the arguments used in favour of scaling-up private-sector provision in poor countries. The evidence shows that prioritising this approach is extremely unlikely to deliver health for poor people. [adapted from author]

The study had three objectives: to determine the current competency levels of the workforce attending women during labor, delivery, and the early postpartum period; examine conditions at the workplace to determine environmental and organizational factors that affect workforce productivity and performance; and assess implications for regional training and performance improvement at the workplace. [from author]

This study explores the factors that affect performance of nurses in Namibia with the aim of providing a management framework for improving the performance of professional nurses. [from author]

The aims of this publication are to encourage midwives and student midwives to make the most of supervision by working in partnership with their supervisor; provide clear information about the supervisory process and the interface between supervision and midwifery practice; and inform midwives and student midwives about the changing role of the supervisor of midwives. [from introduction]

This document provides resources on Ethiopia’s experiences with community health worker programs. [from abstract]

The most common problems related to Health Workers Salaries and Benefits (HWSB) in Bolivia, Peru and Chile are shortage of health workers, disparity of skills, poor distribution of health workers, inadequate working environments and low knowledge about the characteristic of HWSB. This report collects data about these countries, showing that the wages of doctors during the last fifteen years have generally had to increase more than the wages of other workers. [adapted from executive summary]

Nurses and managers interviewed in Cape Town primary care facilities share their insights, experiences and how they cope with the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [from introduction]

Increasing access to safe delivery and family planning services within rural communities increases the opportunities for women to have positive outcomes for their pregnancies as well as to plan and achieve their desired family size. This paper examines the scaling up of a community-based model in Kenya that enabled women to give birth safely at home or to be referred to a hospital when attended by a self-employed skilled midwife living in the community. [adapted from summary]

This paper serves as background documentation for the first expert meeting for developing the evidence-based recommendations for increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention, to be held in Geneva on 2-4 February 2009. It is intended to provide an overview of the issues, challenges and potential solutions to the problem of inequitable access to health workers in remote and rural areas. [from introduction}

This document details the specific hiring criteria for allied health staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health. Primary areas of interest to HRH facilitators include positions in the fields of optometry, dentistry, oral health and laboratory staff.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for allied health staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health. Primary areas of interest to HRH facilitators include positions in the fields of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and disease control.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for administrative and support staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for directors as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for clinical, nursing & midwifery and pharmacy staff as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

This document details the specific hiring criteria for blood donor organizers as established by the Health Services division of the Ghana Ministry of Health.

This report is a follow-up to the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit held in Japan in July, 2008. It was prepared by government officials in health and foreign policy from the G8 countries, with leadership from Japan, and covered a number of critical issues in global health. The report reflected growing policy attention to health system strengthening by Japan and the global health community more broadly. [from introduction]

The chapter containing on "Opportunities for Overcoming the Health Workforce Crisis" begins on page 27.

Long-Acting Family Planning (LAFP) methods, provide uninterrupted protection to women for 3 to 12 years. But they must be inserted by trained providers in a safe clinical environment. With limited facilities and few providers, widespread implementation of LAFP in Ethiopia requires training of significant numbers of rural providers and developing properly equipped facilities for implant and IUCD insertions. This document describes a training program for family planning. [from author]