Human Resources for Health

Ensuring Adequate Human Resources for Health to Deliver Priority Services

Shortages of human resources for health (HRH) has proven to be a major obstacle to strengthening and expanding HIV and AIDS programs worldwide, but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The Health Systems 20/20 project helps governments address HRH shortages in a variety of ways: matching staffing needs with available resources, developing next-generation cadres of managers, and identifying options for improving retention for hard-to-fill posts are but a few examples of Health Systems 20/20 work.

In Côte d’Ivoire, Health Systems 20/20 assisted the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene to conduct a human resource assessment. Based on earlier separate public and private sector HRH assessments, the final assessment projected that, without a change in policy, the number of health professionals would decline by 15 percent by 2008. Health Systems 20/20 worked with the ministry to develop a five-year strategy to ensure a continuous supply of trained health professionals and to map out their deployment. Also with the ministry, Health Systems 20/20 has implemented management training among 200 district supervisors and incentive payments to health workers in hard-to-fill posts. These interventions will broadly strengthen the primary care system because the district supervisors and health workers are responsible for all health services, not only HIV/AIDS.

Health Systems 20/20 and predecessor project Partners for Health Reformplus (known as PHRplus) have conducted public and private sector HRH assessments in five countries over the past four years. To share the lessons learned from these assessments, generic tools were developed to assist all countries wishing to conduct such assessments. The tools consist of a trainer’s guide, participant manual, and PowerPoint presentation. The tools include the HRH questionnaire instruments.