Resources
Articles, reports, reviews and papers
DUSSAULT, Gilles, et al (2009) Scaling up the stock of health workers: a review
This paper synthesises some of the published and grey literature on the process of scaling up the health workforce – also known as human resources for health (HRH) – with a particular focus on increasing the number of trained providers of health services.
http://www.ichrn.com/publications/policyresearch/Scaling_up-EN.pdf
WULIJI, Tana, ed. (2009) 2009 FIP global pharmacy workforce report (The Hague: International Pharmaceutical Federation-FIP)
This report includes…”an analysis of the global pharmacy workforce situation, description of country experiences, guidance and recommendations. Based on data from 56 countries, the report paints a mixed picture of progress, diversity, growing inequity and capacity limitations.”
http://www.fip.org
WULIJI, Tana, CARTER, Sarah, BATES, Ian (April 2009) Migration as a form of workforce attrition : a nine-country study of pharmacists (In: Human Resources for Health 2009: 7:32)
“This paper reports on the first international attempt to investigate the migration intentions of pharmacy students and identify migration factors and their relationships.”
http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/7/1/32
ADJEI, George A, et al (February 2009) Quest for quality : interventions to improve human resources for health among faith-based organisations (The Hague: Cordaid & Royal Tropical Institute)
[As part of a]“…linking and learning programme, some faith-based umbrella organisations in Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, and Malawi have joined forces to share their experiences in confronting the human resources crisis: by developing retention schemes, offering in-service training, task shifting, developing the planning and management skills of their staff, better coordination of salary and incentive structures with the public systems, and the development of lobbying instruments for national and international use.”
http://www.kit.nl/net/KIT_Publicaties_output/ShowFile2.aspx?e=1536
KINFU, Yohannes, et al (February 2009) The health worker shortage in Africa: are enough physicians and nurses being trained? (In: Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2009:87 pp 225-230)
“The health worker shortage in sub-Saharan Africa derives from many causes, yet the dynamics of entry into and exit from the health workforce in many of these countries remain poorly understood. This limits the capacity of national governments and their international development partners to design and implement appropriate intervention programmes. This paper provides some of this information through the first systematic estimates of health worker inflow and outflow in selected sub-Saharan African countries.”
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/3/08-051599/en/index.html
CAMPBELL, Catherine (December 2008) Hearing community voices: grassroots perceptions of an intervention to support health volunteers in South Africa (In; Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Vol 5, No 4, pp 162-177) Pretoria: SAHARA – Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance
“This paper reports on community perceptions of a three-year project which sought to train and support volunteer health workers in a rural community in South Africa.”
http://www.sahara.org.za/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=344&Itemid=85
FLOTTORP, Signe (August 2008) Do lay health workers in primary and community health care improve maternal and child health?
A SUPPORT Summary of a systematic review.
http://www.support-collaboration.org/summaries.htm
LEWIN Simon, et al (2008). Supporting the delivery of cost-effective interventions in primary health-care systems in low-income and middle-income countries: an overview of systematic reviews. In: The Lancet (2008;372(9642) pp928-939)
MINISTRY OF GENDER, LABOUR AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (2008) Human resources development planning guide: orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) service delivery in Uganda
“This guide has been developed to support human resources development planning of staff managing and implementing the Uganda OVC programme at national and local government levels. The guide is applicable to all staff and partners managing various OVC interventions.”
http://www.aidsalliance.org/graphics/secretariat/publications/HR_Development_Guide_OVC_services.pdf
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) (2008) World health report 2008 – Primary health care: now more than ever
This report considers four sets of reforms that reflect a convergence between the values of primary health care, the expectations of citizens and the common health performance challenges that cut across all contexts.”
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf [English]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_ar.pdf [Arabic]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_ch.pdf [Chinese]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/08_report_fr.pdf [French]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_ru.pdf [Russian]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/08_report_es.pdf [Spanish]
http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_pr.pdf [Portuguese]
DING Yang & TIAN Jiang (2008) Annual review of HRH situation in Asia-Pacific region 2006-2007
“This report reviews the Human Resources for Health (HRH) status in the targeted countries by mainly focusing on health education and training, distribution and retention of health workers, community health workers. Eighteen countries have been included in the report: Bangladesh; Cambodia; China; Fiji; India; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Vietnam; Australia; New Zealand and Mongolia.”
http://www.aaahrh.org/3rd_conf_2008/annual_review_of_hrh.pdf
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) GLOBAL HEALTH WORKFORCE ALLIANCE (2008) The Kampala declaration and agenda for global action
This resource contains both the Kampala declaration and an agenda for global action to “guide the initial steps in a coordinated global, regional and national response to the worldwide shortage and mal-distribution of health workers, moving towards universal access to quality health care and improved health outcomes. It is meant to unite and intensify the political will and commitments necessary for significant and effective actions to resolve this crisis, and to align efforts of all stakeholders at all levels around solutions.”
http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/Kampala%20Declaration%20and%20Agenda%20web%20file.%20FINAL.pdf [English]
http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/French.Kampala%20Declaration%20and%20Agenda.WEB.file.pdf [French]
GIRMA, Samuel et al (2007) Human resource development for health in Ethiopia:
challenges of achieving the millennium development goals (In: Ethiopian Journal of Health Development 21(3)pp 216-231)
A “review of different documents on human resource for health in Ethiopia was undertaken. Generally there is shortage in number of different groups of professionals, mal-distribution of professionals between regions, urban and rural settings, and government and non-government /private organisations. A number of measures are being taken to alleviate these problems. Their implications for human resource development by 2015 are explored briefly.”
http://ejhd.uib.no/ejhd-v21-n3/216%20Human%20Resource%20Development%20for%20Health%20in%20Ethiopia%20Challenges%20of%20Achieving%20the%20Millennium%20Development%20Goals.pdf
DEUTSCHE GESELLSCHAFT FUR TECHNISCHE ZUSAMMENARBEIT (GTZ) (2007) Developing human resources for health
This booklet …”describes the dire shortage of human resources (HR) in the health systems of low and middle income countries and the special challenges posed by this crisis. It touches on ways of addressing shortages of qualified staff and gives several examples of how countries can use technical support to build stronger a health workforce.”
http://www.backup-link.de/pdf/06_Chapter_link.pdf
SIBLEY, L M, et al (2007) Traditional birth attendant training for improving health behaviours and pregnancy outcomes. In: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2007: Issue 3. Art. No: CD005460)
Lehmann U, Sanders D (2007) Community health workers: what do we know about them? The state of the evidence on programmes, activities, costs and impact of health outcomes of using community health workers. (Geneva:World Health Organization)
http://www.who.int/hrh/documents/community_health_workers.pdf
IJSSELMUIDEN, Carel (2007) Human resources for health research: the key to successful sustainable health system improvements
“This paper reflects on human resources for health research (HRHR) a largely ignored but increasingly important component of the overall strategy to improve the quality, quantity, and stability of human resources for health (HRH) in developing countries. This is an area for this the ‘declarations’ still have to be developed. Indeed, it is hoped that this contribution will assist in achieving more recognition for this small, but key component of successful sustainable health system improvement.”
http://www.cohred.org/Assests/PDF/Papers/MMSBulletin_104_07_IJsselmuiden.pdf
http://www.medicusmundi.ch/mms/services/bulletin/bulletin104_2007/chapter0705168999/bulletinarticle0705164414.html
LEWIN, Simon A, et al (2006). Lay health workers in primary and community health care: A systematic review of trials
A policy brief prepared for the International Dialogue on Evidence-Informed Action to Achieve Health Goals in Developing Countries (IDEAHealth).
http://www.who.int/rpc/meetings/LHW_review.pdf
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) (2006) Working together for health: the world health report 2006
“The ‘World Health Report 2006 – Working together for health’ contains both an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and an ambitious set of proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately.”
http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/whr/2006/whr06_en.pdf
JOINT LEARNING INITIATIVE (2004) Human resources for health: overcoming the crisis
This report identifies strategies to strengthen the workforce of health systems.
The Joint Learning Initiative was launched because many people believed that the most critical factor driving health system performance, the health worker, was neglected and overlooked.
http://www.healthgap.org/camp/hcw_docs/JLi_Human_Resources_for_Health.pdf
SWIDER, S M (2002) Outcome effectiveness of community health workers: an integrative literature review. In; Public Health Nursing (2002; 19. pp11–20)
WALT, G (1990) Community health workers in national programmes: just another pair of hands? (Milton Keynes: Open University Press)
Interviews
Africa’s health worker crisis – an interview with Dr Peter Ngatia (2009) AMREF (Africa Medical Research Foundation)
This interview with Dr Peter Ngatia, former faculty head at the Kenya Medical Training Centre, explores the critical lack of health workers of all levels throughout the continent of Africa and its implications. It also discusses programmes that have been set up to train community health workers to help provide at least minimum access to health care providers, particularly for rural communities.
http://www.amref.org/news/africas-health-worker-crisis–an-interview-with-dr-peter-ngatia/
Websites
CAPACITY PROJECT. The capacity project: planning developing & supporting the workforce
This global initiative has been designed to help developing countries build and sustain the health workforce so that they can respond systemically to the challenges of implementing and sustaining quality health programmes.
http://www.capacityproject.org
HRH global resource center: find, share and contribute
The HRH Global Resource Center is a user-driven, global library of human resources for health (HRH) resources focused on developing countries.
http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org
ELDIS. Human resources for health
The human resources for health dossier is an information resource and tool for advocacy for the importance of human resources in making improvements in health service delivery for poor people.
http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/dossiers/human-resources-for-health
Compiled by Deepthi Wickremasinghe, co-ordinator SOURCE International Information Support Centre www.asksource.info
Source is designed to meet the information needs of individuals and organisations working in health, disability and development worldwide. These include health workers, researchers and students, non-governmental and governmental organisations, and disabled people’s organisations. With both a resource centre, based in London, and electronic databases, this is a unique collection of around 25,000 health and disability information resources. These include books, journals, manuals, report, posters, CD-ROMs, websites and organisations. Many materials are from developing countries and include both published and unpublished literature not readily available elsewhere in the UK.
