Human Resources for Health

This post was originally published on the Global Health Workforce Alliance Members’ Platform. CapacityPlus is the featured member in March. We encourage you to join and contribute to the discussion.

In recent years, heightened attention has been given to scaling up the production of health workers in response to the global human resources for health (HRH) crisis. While many countries face absolute health worker shortages and need to increase their availability, the HRH crisis is not just a supply problem. CapacityPlus provides technical assistance to ensure that health workers are more equitably distributed—especially to rural and other underserved areas, remain working at their posts, and effectively provide health care services in order to increase access to quality family planning, reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, and other primary health services and help countries move toward universal health coverage. Read more »

Meet Martin Ssendyona, senior medical officer in the Uganda Ministry of Health’s Quality Assurance Department.

Martin’s job brings him into contact with a wide variety of health workers in different settings. “I think we need to be more innovative within the circumstances we are working,” he reflects. “There are many challenges we face, but many of these may not necessarily need additional resources. We need to see how we can involve others, engage the system, and make things better than the way they are now.”

One way Martin tries to make things better is through providing supportive supervision to health workers in remote areas. During one particularly memorable visit, he even lent a hand and got a surprising reward. Read more »

It’s impossible to forget a woman caring for five kids, in a cockroach-infested plywood house, in 90-degree weather. She has no access to clean water or adequate health care.

I was fortunate as a teenager to have experienced the health and quality of life conditions in the developing world firsthand. On a 10-day school trip to Matamoros, Mexico, this image was ingrained in my mind and in the minds of 12 other high school students. (In case you’re unaware of Matamoros’s location, it’s barely five miles from the US border.)

Public opinions
Diseases and issues such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, malnutrition, and access to clean water are often cited as the biggest public health concerns for developing nations. While these issues are rightfully at the center of the public and government discourse, I wanted to see how the global health workforce stacked up against these other widely recognized problems. 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 »