Globally, 56% of all married women are using a modern method of contraception, up from less than 10% in 1960. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, only 19% of married women are using a modern method of contraception. Since nearly all family planning services require assistance from a health worker, access to health workers is a principal supply-side determinant of family planning service use. This technical brief presents findings from a study that explored if and how health workforce measures differ between eastern and western Africa, in an effort to identify factors that may have helped some countries to achieve important gains in contraceptive prevalence while other countries have not. The findings raise questions about whether government commitment and certain policy choices vis-à-vis health workforce distribution and qualifications—even when absolute levels of health worker density are low—could make a difference in the provision of family planning services in resource-constrained countries.
Human resources for health (HRH) is a relatively young field. As such, less is known about how to successfully implement health workforce interventions than is known about other types of health interventions (e.g., service delivery) with a longer history of implementation. Presented at the Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Beijing on November 2, 2012, this poster describes results from a qualitative study with staff from USAID-funded HRH projects in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania led by IntraHealth International, which was conducted in recognition of the need for a more systematic approach to understanding the challenges and success factors in implementing HRH interventions.
Governments and the global health community are increasingly paying attention to maximizing and measuring impact through service delivery integration efforts. In family planning/HIV service integration, for example, benefits include increased access to both types of services, improved quality of care, and enhanced program effectiveness. While it takes health workers to deliver these services, most of the evaluations of service integration models have largely ignored health workers as an input to, or output of, integrated service delivery. This technical brief assesses the evidence on the role of health workers in the integration of family planning and HIV services and discusses key health worker considerations when integrating these services. Read more »
In 2006, IntraHealth International, as implementer of the USAID-funded Capacity Project, developed and launched the HRH Global Resource Center, a digital library committed to reducing access barriers in developing countries to the best human resources for health information available. Since the launch, the HRH Global Resource Center has transformed in response to usage, feedback, and changes in the field. This article in Knowledge Management for Development shares IntraHealth’s experiences developing, using, and refining monitoring and evaluation methods and metrics for the HRH Global Resource Center.
CapacityPlus conducted a situational analysis of a para-social worker training program in three country contexts. Para-social workers are volunteers who have received training in foundational skills in basic social service delivery to help address the human resources crisis in delivering social services to vulnerable populations, including children. This analysis validated that the twinning model is adaptable and should be employed to build a cadre of para-social workers at the local level. The analysis also provides the needed data for promoting and funding twinning practices and creating para-social worker cadres as an emergency human resources response to serving children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
Ce résumé technique évalue un ensemble de données probantes relatives à la manière dont les agents de santé prennent part à l’intégration des services de planification familiale et de lutte contre le VIH et livre quelques réflexions essentielles sur le personnel de santé impliqué dans ce processus, peu importe le modèle d’intégration choisi.
Participants in the Human Resources for Health Leadership and Management Course in Uganda share some perspectives on a program designed to help them address health workforce challenges at the district level. Also available in French.
This eLearning course produced by CapacityPlus’s HRH Global Resource Center is intended to introduce users to basic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) concepts and how they apply in the field of human resources for health (HRH).
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