EQUINET / HST research and dialogue in 2003-5 identified three areas of focus were for action on health workers: • Valuing health workers so that they are retained within national health systems. This includes reviewing and implementing policies on non-financial incentives for HRH such as career paths, housing, working conditions, management systems and communication. • Promoting relevant production of HRH, particularly in terms of the health personnel for district and primary care levels, and drawing on experience in the region on training of auxiliaries. • Responding to migration, which requires closing the evidence gap with respect to migration (levels, flows and causes), financial flows, costs (benefits, losses) and return intentions and mapping the effectiveness of current policies. A regional meeting held in April 2006 in Zambia with SIDA support planned the follow up programme of country and regional work. An agreed workplan was developed at this meeting that focused on country support and regional mapping of policy options for managing retention and migration of HRH. The 2006-2009 programme This work is now being taken forward. The University of Namibia is now co-ordinating the work on HRH retention and Health Systems Trust the work on HRH migration, in co-operation with EQUINET Secretariat (TARSC) and ECSA Regional Health Secretariat. The work on migration will support research and policy analysis and evaluation on the costs and benefits of health worker migration and on the effectiveness of policies for management of migration. The work on retention will support country programmes to monitor, evaluate and manage incentives for retention of health workers, particularly non financial incentives. A reference group has been identified linking with key institutions and individuals involved in work in health workers to advise and peer review the work. As advised in the planning meeting, a review of literature and secondary evidence is being implemented between November 2006 and February 2007 on each of the two areas of work, ie review and critical analysis of literature and secondary evidence on • ‘Non financial incentives for retention of health in east and southern Africa (ESA)’, and on • ‘The distribution of costs and benefits of health worker migration within and beyond east and southern Africa (ESA)’. (see www.equinetafrica.org and http://www.crhcs.or.tz/index.php?meid=17 for the call). Further work is being done in HST to compile the current policies and agreements on health worker migration. EQUINET and ECSA with HST and University of Namibia will in February / March 2007 hold a regional meeting drawing in researchers, country programme managers, health worker associations regional and international agency personnel and other relevant stakeholders to discuss the findings to date, the analytic framework and methods and to set up the follow up programme of work on migration and retention. The programme will support empirical research on the costs and benefits of health worker migration within and beyond east and southern Africa (ESA); and will support evaluation of the effectiveness of current policies and agreements to manage these costs and benefits. This work will be co-ordinated by Health Systems Trust South Africa and will be implemented in 2007/8. The programme will further support work with country teams to support monitoring and evaluation and operational research to inform policy development and strengthen management and evaluation of incentives for retention of health workers, particularly non financial incentives. This work will be co-ordinated by University of Namibia, Namibia and will be implemented in 2007/8. Both programmes will work with the EQUINET steering committee and the ECSA Technical Working Group on Human Resources for Health. For further information on the programme please contact EQUINET (admin@equinetafrica.org) and ECSA (regsec@crhcs.or.tz) or visit the EQUINET or ECSA websites (www.equinetafrica.org) and (http://www.crhcs.or.tz)