Blog

Strengthening the Health Workforce through eHealth Innovation: Reflections from the GETHealth Summit

Dr. Kate TulenkoI recently had the privilege of representing CapacityPlus at the Global Education and Technology Health (GETHealth) Summit at the United Nations in New York City, speaking in sessions on distance learning in rural communities and leveraging social media to address the global health workforce gap.

While eHealth and mHealth conferences tend to be geared toward the American and European markets, I found GETHealth refreshing and timely in its focus on lower-resource settings—in fact, the governments of Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda cohosted the summit.

Developing countries face different challenges including bandwidth, mobile phone service geographic coverage, and illiteracy that must be addressed when pursuing eHealth and mHealth solutions. GETHealth brought global thought leaders in health, education, and ICT together to discuss and develop technology-driven initiatives designed to empower health workers and the resource-limited communities they serve. Read more »

US Investments in Foreign Aid Provide a Healthy Return

This post was originally published on USAID's IMPACT blog.

What if you could take a fraction of a penny and use it to help build a health system? Believe it. It takes only a fraction of a single penny per American taxpayer dollar to train a global health workforce—a workforce that will reach millions through treatment, prevention, and counseling services.

Just ask midwife Teddy Tiberimbwaku, who had the opportunity to meet Uganda’s vice president Thursday.

Last year, Uganda’s Ministry of Health, operating with only one doctor and 13 nurses to serve every 10,000 people, was told by the Ministry of Public Service that not only could it not create any new positions, but also any unfilled positions—some 42 percent of them—would be lost. Read more »

Ready, Set, Study: CapacityPlus Accelerates Nigeria’s Production of New Health Workers

Pius Emmanuel Uwamanua On February 19, 2013, CapacityPlus launched a scholarship bursary scheme, one of its mechanisms for supporting preservice education in Nigeria. The launch events, held in Edo and Benue States, were well attended by government dignitaries and by beneficiaries of the assistance. For me, it was a joyful thing to see smiles on the faces of indigent students who now could breathe some air of hope.

CapacityPlus/Nigeria is working to increase the numbers of health workers to meet the priority health needs of underserved populations. The project aims to boost the number of new health workers produced in Nigeria—in particular by supporting the preservice education and qualification of midwives and community health extension workers—accelerating Nigeria’s contribution toward PEPFAR’s target of supporting the training and retention of more than 140,000 new health workers. Read more »

Syndicate content