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Retaining Community Health Workers in Ethiopia

Mesrak BelatchewIn a recent New York Times opinion, Tina Rosenberg asked “What makes community health care work?” Her commentary highlights the important elements for sustaining community health work in developing countries—careful financing, using teaching as part of the sustainability structure, supervision and training, working with the government, and scaling up according to the program and country context—and refers to the rich experiences of BRAC in Bangladesh.

Ethiopia’s health extension worker (HEW) initiative, established in 2004, is another example of a successful program in sub-Saharan Africa. Developed and implemented by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the HEW program has evolved both in scope and scale to accommodate new health initiatives. Read more »

Health Workers for a New Century

Hopital El Hadj Ibrahma Niaso Kaolack“Health is about people—those with needs and those who are entrusted to respond to those needs,” said Dr. Julio Frenk, Harvard School of Public Health dean and cochair of Education of Health Professionals for the 21st century: A Global Independent Commission.

Dr. Frenk presented the Commission’s new report, "Health professionals for a new century: Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world," at the World Bank recently, noting that this report represents a change in basic thinking about health education. Read more »

Less Buck for the Bang? The Flattening of Global Health Funding

Shaun NoronhaThe availability of funding for global health may well decide to what extent the health workforce will be able to meet countries' health care needs. With current financial uncertainties, the questions on our minds are: Will a decrease in global aid force cuts in spending for human resources? Is the era of big funding for global health already over?
 
“No,” says Dr. Cristian Baeza, World Bank director for health, nutrition, and population. While this era may not be over yet, in a recent lecture, Dr. Baeza discussed changes that will exert pressure on the availability of global health financing. Read more »

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