Health Workers

At the recent Critical Issues Series: Strengthening Human Resources for Supply Chain Management of Health Commodities event, IntraHealth International staff Uche Ekenna presented CapacityPlus’s new Life Cycle Approach to professionalizing under-recognized cadres.

Ekenna delivered key messages on workforce development, workforce effectiveness, and policy and planning to specific supply chain functions. His panel focused on the professionalization of under-recognized cadres—i.e., supply chain management professionals—and how the Life Cycle Approach can systematically address all crucial steps in the cadre professionalization process.

Hosted by the USAID DELIVER Project, this event featured presentations by human resources for health (HRH) and health commodities panelists, and offered experts a forum to discuss and identify future areas for building strong collaborations, sharing lessons learned, and identifying strategies to address human resources constraints affecting the distribution of health commodities to clients. Read more »

The global health workforce crisis demands a strategic investment in a long-term solution. Given the limited human resources for health (HRH) available in many countries, an integrated, systems-based approach is necessary if countries are to achieve all the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

The Center for Global Development’s (CGD’s) recent report argues that donors must evolve from the emergency approach required to scale up vertical HIV/AIDS programs to a more sustainable approach that plans for, develops, deploys, and retains a health workforce responsive to the population as a whole.

A call to donors
Based on research conducted in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia, the CGD report examined how AIDS programs leveraged health workers, their financial and programmatic inputs into health worker training and deployment, and the effects of these actions on health services. Read more »

After being escorted past more security guards than I’ve encountered in my entire life, I arrived in a conference room in the United Nations building overlooking the East River in New York City eager to hear luminaries discuss the critical link between human resources for health (HRH) and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

I took the train from Washington, DC to NYC early this morning and watched the birth of a sunny, early fall day. I “immigrated” to NYC from Kansas after graduate school, and I still love its positive energy.

Progress in human resources for health
No Health Workforce. No Health MDGs. Is that acceptable? was a side event held at the MDG Summit this week, sponsored by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) along with the governments of Norway, Brazil, and Cameroon, and the Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative. President of Malawi Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika delivered the keynote address, and Dr. Mubashar Sheikh from GHWA delivered the opening and closing remarks. The panelists included ministers of health from Cameroon, Malawi, Norway, and Brazil; a DFID representative; and a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) vice president. Read more »

On a recent Monday I spotted an article in the Washington Post about a young doctor who accepted a position in rural Virginia. She and many other health workers are struggling to balance their professional commitment—“I really wanted to help people who wouldn’t otherwise get help,” Dr. Sarah Carricaburu told the reporter—with the drawbacks of living far from an urban center. She’s not sure if she’ll stay.

I was struck by the similar context of this article and the stories I hear every week from developing countries around the world. The factors driving doctors and nurses away from rural posts in the US are largely the same as those in developing countries—social and professional isolation, access to the Internet, housing, cultural options, schooling for children, lack of opportunity for continuing education.

We often assume the problem is one of salary. But it’s more complicated than that. Read more »