How can governments successfully plan scale up of their Human Resources for Health (HRH)? How can health systems structure incentives to draw healthcare practitioners into rural service? These are just some of the questions that were addressed in an interactive policy roundtable hosted by the Results for Development Institute (R4D) and the Global Health Council (GHC) on November 3, 2010.
HRH are a vital component of well functioning health systems and an essential element in improving health outcomes across the globe. In fact the PEPFAR reauthorization act calls for the training of 140,000 new health workers trained in HIV/AIDS prevention, and the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) commissioned a taskforce to study the issues around HRH scale up for universal access. Although these actions are a resounding message for the importance of HRH, there is not a clear consensus on the policies and programs that must be in place for additional health workers and financing to contribute to and sustain health systems in the long term. This session highlighted 3 of these issue areas including Costs and Financing, HRH Management and Solutions to Geographic Inequity. These policy areas not only critical for meeting PEPFAR’s target and achieving universal access, but also for HRH scale up at large.
This session allowed the audience to break into small groups and discuss and analyze these HRH policy areas at depth. Each group was facilitated by experts in HRH including:
- Marty Makinen, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute
- Jim McCaffery, Deputy Director for HRH/Health Systems Strengthening, USAID Capacity Plus Project
- Marko Vujicic, Senior Economist for Human Development Network, World Bank
Estelle Quain, Team Lead for Health Systems Strengthening at the Office of HIV/AIDS, USAID Bureau of Global Health will act as a closing discussant.
An Interactive Policy Roundtable to Confront 3 of the Top Challenges in Scaling Up Human Resources for Health
November 3, 2-3:30 pm
Location: Global Health Council, 1111 19th St NW