The Resource Requirements Tool (RRT) is a hands-on, Excel-based tool that is ready for countries to apply to (i) estimate and project the resources required for meeting their HRH plans; (ii) analyze the plans’ affordability; (iii) simulate “what if” scenarios; (iv) facilitate the monitoring of scale up plans; (v) contribute to the development of the cost and financing component of Human Resource Management Information Systems.

The RRT includes three interlocking modules on: (1) Comprehensive costs of employment (salaries, benefits, in-service training, special bonuses and conditions) in the public sector, while accounting for HRH employed in the private sector; (2) Costs of pre-service training to meet HRH plans, while accounting for HRH demand and production in the private sector, and (3) Affordability of HRH employment and pre-service training.

The target audience of the RRT comprises ministries of health, education, and finance as well as parliaments and development partners. So far the RRT was used by Ministries of Health in five countries:  Liberia, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Philippines. A number of other countries and development partners have expressed interest in applying the RRT, for example in Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Papua New Guinea.

The RRT is accompanied by two papers:
•    A framework paper called Financing and Economic Aspects of Health Workforce Scale-up and Improvement which synthesizes the literature and experiences on HRH financing.
•    An action paper entitled What Countries Can Do Now: Twenty-Nine Actions to Scale up and Improve the Health Workforce which provides recommendations to policy makers on steps to take immediately concerning HRH financing.

In addition, RRT users are provided with a power-point training manual on the RRT, a data collection guide and a frequently asked questions document.

The RRT was developed by the Financing Taskforce (FTF) of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) in collaboration with the World Bank Group. For more information on the RRT, please contact the GHWA Financing Task Force Secretariat: Marty Makinen at mmakinen@resultsfordevelopment.org and Dessi Dimitrova at ddimitrova@resultsfordevelopment.org.