"The loss of professionals and other skilled people from the SADC region is fast assuming the dimensions of a major crisis," says this article on the website of Idasa. "The countries of southern Africa pour vast resources into training to ensure that future skills needs are met. But is all this investment in human resource development really going to benefit the countries concerned? Or are they, in effect, simply providing students with "skill passports" so that they can relocate to other parts of the world?"
Human Resources
Brain Drain Creating Problems in SADC
Stemming the brain drain
February's WHO Bulletin looks at the migration of skilled professionals to industrialized countries as one of the factors behind the chronic shortage of health workers in many developing countries. "….International recognition that the growing shortage of health workers poses a major threat to fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis has prompted a flurry of measures to stem the exodus of health professionals from developing countries."
The health workforce crisis in TB control
Human Resources for Health 2005, 3:2
"Human resources (HR) constraints have been reported as one of the main barriers to achieving the 2005 global tuberculosis (TB) control targets in 18 of the 22 TB high-burden countries (HBCs); consequently we try to assess the current HR available for TB control in HBCs...(The study concluded that) There were few readily available data on HR for TB control in HBCs, particularly in the larger ones. The great variations in staff numbers and the poor association between information on workforce, proportion of trained staff, and length and quality of courses suggested a lack of valid information and/or poor data reliability. There is urgent need to support HBCs to develop a comprehensive HR strategy involving short-term and long-term HR development plans and strengthening their HR planning and management capabilities."
Using mid-level cadres as substitutes for health professionals
This article, from Human Resources for Health, examines the experiences of using substitute health workers (SHW) in Africa. The review focuses mainly on physicians and reviews data from Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Ghana. Findings demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of using SHWs and higher rates of retention within countries and in rural communities. However, problems are also identified, including the potential among SHWs for poor clinical decision making and lack of adherence to clinical regulations.
Human resources for health: overcoming the crisis
Joint learning initiative / Global Health Trust , 2004
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI). The report highlights major global challenges in human resources for health. These include: global shortages of skilled workers; skill imbalances in existing workers; poor distribution of services worsened by increased migration; poor work environments; and a weak knowledge base. The findings show that effective workforce strategies, including community action and country leadership, enhance the performance of health systems even under difficult circumstances. The authors call for immediate action to harness the power of health workers, which must be country based and led.
Measures of the African brain drain
Physician migration from poor countries to rich ones contributes to worldwide health workforce imbalances that may be detrimental to the health systems of source countries. The migration of over 5000 doctors from sub-Saharan Africa to the USA has had a significantly negative effect on the doctor-to-population ratio of Africa. The finding that the bulk of migration occurs from only a few countries and medical schools suggests policy interventions in only a few locations could be effective in stemming the brain drain.
Overcoming the human resources crisis
Human Resources for Health 2004
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI), an enterprise engaging more than 100 global health leaders in landscaping human resources for health and in identifying strategies to strengthen the workforce of health systems. The JLI was launched because the most critical factor driving health system performance, the health worker, was neglected and overlooked. At a time of opportunity to redress outstanding health challenges, there is a growing awareness that human resources rank consistently among the most important system barriers to progress.
Underpaid African Health Workers Flee the Frontline
Small antiretroviral drug programmes are beginning to take shape in some of the worst affected countries in Africa. But as the drugs flow in, the medical personnel needed to administer them are being lured away by the rich countries that talk loudly about finding a solution to Africa's AIDS crisis and whose companies provided the drugs. WHO estimates that only 750000 health workers are available to care for 682-million people in sub-Saharan Africa, which has more than 25-million people infected with HIV, or 60% of the global total.
Call to initiate HIV/AIDS worker protection plans
Unless sub-Saharan African countries initiate workplace anti-AIDS programmes, the pandemic will decimate the region's human resource capacity, experts warned in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, in November. "African companies already find it difficult to compete in global markets," Ghana's presidential advisor on HIV/AIDS, Professor Fred Sai, told the fourth interactive meeting of the UN Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA).
Classifying human resources constraints to attaining health-related Millennium Development Goals
This study explores the constraints related to human resources in the health (HRH) sector to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in low-income countries. The author finds that, at an individual level, the decision to enter, remain and serve in the health sector workforce is influenced by a series of social, economic, cultural and gender-related determinants.