Global Health Workforce Alliance: increasing the momentum for health workforce development.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance was launched in 2006 to provide a joint platform for governments, development partners, international agencies, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, professional associations, and other stakeholders to work together to address a global crisis in human resources for health. Five years later the vision and mandate of the Alliance still remain valid. Despite advances in bringing the health workforce to the fore in international health policy arenas, more available knowledge and tools, and encouraging signs of commitments from many countries, health workforce bottlenecks continue to prevent many health systems from delivering essential and quality health services. Latin America is not spared from the challenges. The 2010 Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health provided an opportunity to review progress, identify persisting gaps, reach consensus on solutions, and renew the momentum for and commitment to acutely needed investment and actions.

Alianza mundial en pro del personal sanitario: aumentando el impulso para el desarrollo de personal de la salud / Global health workforce alliance: increasing the momentum for health workforce development

La Alianza en Pro del Personal Sanitario fue lanzada en el año 2006 para brindar una plataforma conjunta a los gobiernos, a las asociaciones de desarrollo, las agencias internacionales, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, academia, el sector privado, las asociaciones profesionales y otros actores interesados, para trabajar juntos a fin de enfrentar la crisis global de los recursos humanos en salud. Cinco años después, la visión y el mandato de la Alianza aún son válidos. A pesar de los avances, como el ubicar a personal de la salud en el ruedo internacional de la política de salud, el aumento del conocimiento, las herramientas disponibles y las señales alentadoras de compromisos de muchos países, los cuellos de botella de la fuerza laboral de la salud siguen impidiendo a muchos sistemas de salud entregar servicios de salud esenciales y de calidad. América Latina no está libre de estos desafíos. En el 2010 el Segundo Foro Mundial sobre Recursos Humanos para la Salud permitió revisar el progreso, identificar brechas persistentes, alcanzar un consenso sobre soluciones y renovar el impulso para el compromiso de las inversiones y actuaciones urgentemente requeridas.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance was launched in 2006 to provide a joint platform for governments, development partners, international agencies, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, professional associations, and other stakeholders to work together to address a global crisis in human resources for health. Five years later the vision and mandate of the Alliance still remain valid. Despite advances in bringing the health workforce to the fore in international health policy arenas, more available knowledge and tools, and encouraging signs of commitments from many countries, health workforce bottlenecks continue to prevent many health systems from delivering essential and quality health services. Latin America is not spared from the challenges. The 2010 Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health provided an opportunity to review progress, identify persisting gaps, reach consensus on solutions, and renew the momentum for and commitment to acutely needed investment and actions.

Forging partnerships to solve the global health workforce crisis and achieve the health MDGs.

The health workforce is in many countries the weakest link in the effective and equitable delivery of quality health services, and the largest impediment to the achievement of health Millennium Development Goals. The Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action, championed by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, provide an effective overarching framework for the bold, concerted and sustained action which is required at the international, national and local level.

Measurement of social capital as an indicator of community-based initiatives (CBI) in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to observe whether measurement of social capital is an effective tool or can be used as a standard tool for community-based initiatives (CBI) evaluation. It also points at the significance of social capital in the health related grass root initiatives. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: CBI is an integrated socio-economic development approach implemented by the organized communities, supported by inter-sectoral actions for improvement of quality of life and health of the people. Support by WHO's office of Eastern Mediterranean Region, Islamic Republic of Iran implement programmes like basic development needs, healthy cities, healthy villages and women in health and development, that are evaluated during 2005-2006. Social capital, that includes the networking, sharing norms and cooperation amongst communities, is measured as one of the indicators during the evaluation, by surveying 240 households in three CBI and three control villages, using the World Bank's, Social Development Department's Social Capital Assessment Tool for data collection. FINDINGS: The evaluation results reveal that the social capital indicators like affiliation percentage; trust reciprocity; and collective action are better in CBI areas than their controls. CBI areas have a better access to public services, are more peaceful, people are more willing to help others and there is less segregation due to income and social status. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The evaluation findings support the use of social capital indicators for investigating the impact and affectivity of CBI for health and development, and underlines the need for their consideration during implementation processes and further investigation.

In-country capacity development of a training institute: an Iranian experience.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to review the Government initiative for developing the in-country capacity of the National Public Health Management Centre (NPMC) in Tabriz. The UNDP definition of capacity has been used as a framework for assessment with the primary focus of the current assessment being on the training component. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The pape shows that Iran, which is a lower-middle income country, has a network of training institutions for both pre-service and continuing education of its human resources in health. This collaborative initiative between NPMC, Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development (NCIHD) and World Health Organization (WHO), attempted to create conditions for designing, organising and conducting a training programme in health planning and management for mid-level health managers in Iran. FINDINGS: The paper finds that the experience of capacity development through training, described here, is in contrast with usual practice, where candidates are sent abroad for training. Overall, the process for developing in-country capacity of a local institute by a foreign institute was well thought out. However, there are some lessons to be learned from the process. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper shows that capacity has been built in NPMC for organising in-country short course on health planning and management for health sector reform. The paper concludes by arguing that, in order to sustain these training programmes over a long period of time, in addition to including training in its mandate, NPMC should: consider networking with allied institutions in the country and beyond for sharing knowledge; and make twinning arrangements with a foreign institute for continuously upgrading the knowledge and skills of its trainers.