New Publication Spotlight: Creating an Enabling Environment for Human Resources for Health Program Implementation in Three African Countries
What contributes to successful implementation of interventions to strengthen the health workforce? A new CapacityPlus publication, Creating an Enabling Environment for Human Resources for Health Program Implementation in Three African Countries, identifies three key focus areas that may make the difference—advocacy, partnerships, and technical expertise.
Health workers are in short supply. The world lacks more than four million health workers to meet basic needs, which means nearly a billion people are left without access to care. While recognition of the health workforce crisis has increased, we haven’t yet realized sufficient progress.
Authors Carie Muntifering Cox, Corinne Mahoney Farrell, Crystal Ng, Randi Burlew, and Sara Pacqué-Margolis undertook a qualitative study to determine the factors that define an enabling environment for successful implementation of human resources for health (HRH) programs. They selected Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda because CapacityPlus’s lead partner IntraHealth International has been supporting their governments and other local stakeholders for five years or longer to implement USAID-funded HRH projects.
The authors make specific recommendations in each key focus area, briefly summarized below.
Advocacy
- Allocate time and resources to influence the perception of the impact of HRH investments.
- Identify, generate, and use data and evidence to strengthen advocacy messages.
- Identify and support HRH advocacy champions early in the implementation process and on an ongoing basis.
Partnerships
- Conduct an initial environmental analysis to identify potential stakeholders and their priority implementation agendas.
- Ensure comprehensive representation of and address potential conflict between different stakeholder groups.
- Develop systematic and efficient partner coordination mechanisms.
- Build strong relationships across government stakeholders.
Technical expertise
- Recruit staff with skills and knowledge in HRH and related areas such as advocacy, information technology, monitoring and evaluation, and gender.
- To improve sustainability, incorporate capacity-building activities for stakeholders into implementation plans for HRH interventions.
- Develop a strategy to improve retention of staff, such as providing a competitive incentive package to employees.
To learn more, read the new publication. And please let us know what you think; we welcome your feedback.
Help CapacityPlus spread the word about strengthening the health workforce. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Related items:
HRH implementation graphic courtesy of Crystal Ng
FEATURED RESOURCES
