Who are health managers ? Case studies from three African countries
A rapid descriptive assessment was undertaken in three African countries, namely Ethiopia, Ghana, the United Republic of Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) to gain an initial understanding of the management workforce for service delivery in these countries and to test selected criteria for assessing managers as part of the health workforce. The study was approached using the WHO framework on leadership and management of health services that identifies four essential conditions for effective management in health systems. The framework proposes that effective management requires an adequate number of managers with appropriate competencies, working with effective support systems in an enabling organizational environment. The study focused on the first two conditions and was intended to help provide better knowledge and data on who the managers of health services are, what their main characteristics are and how they are deployed and utilized to achieve service delivery goals. This initial study focused on persons leading health units such as districts, hospitals, provinces/regions and national directorates. Other managerial staff such as accountants, logisticians and general administrators were not included.
Handbook on monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health
With special applications for low- and middle-income countries
This Handbook offers health managers, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive and standard reference for monitoring and evaluating human resources for health. It brings together an analytical framework with strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked.
The present publication is the result of a collaborative effort between the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank and the World Health Organization. The volume was written by an international group of authors and edited by Mario R Dal Poz, Neeru Gupta, Estelle Quain and Agnes LB Soucat.
The Handbook can be downloaded [pdf 3.4 Mb] from htttp://www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/..
The Shortage of Medical Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Substitution Policy
Arnaud Bourgain, Patrice Pieretti and Benteng Zou
abstract:
Substitution policies are strategies sometimes chosen in Sub-Saharan Africa for curtailing the shortage of health professionals especially caused by the outflow of medical personnel. The aim of our contribution is to propose a way to assess the merits and drawbacks of substitution policies by developing a simple growth model of healthcare productivity with medical brain drain. Within this framework, we use a medical care production function of the CES type which aggregates low and high specialized health workers. We then run simulations which compare scenarios with and without substitution strategies by using data from the Ghana’s medical sector. To download the PDF file, please click on this link : http://www.imw.uni-bielefeld.de/research/wp407.php
WHO RURAL HEALTH WORKER RETENTION PROGRAMME
Download the flyer from : http://www.who.int/entity/hrh/migration/flyer_retention_130pix.jpg
Wrong schools or wrong students? The potential role of medical education in regional imbalances of the health workforce in the United Republic of Tanzania
The lack of a primary interest in medicine among medical school entrants, biases in recruitment, the absence of rural related clinical curricula in medical schools, and a preference for specialisation not available in rural areas are among the main obstacles for building a motivated health workforce which can help correct the inequitable distribution of doctors in the United Republic of Tanzania.
The complete article is available at 
http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/8/1/3/abstract
Midwifery tutors' capacity and willingness to teach contraception, post-abortion care, and legal pregnancy termination in Ghana
Voetagbe G, Yellu N, Mills J, Mitchell E, Adu-Amankwah A, Jehu-Appiah K, Nyante F Human Resources for Health 2010, 8:2 (23 February 2010)
Abstract
In total, 74 midwifery tutors were interviewed. Of these, 66 (89.2%) were females. The tutors had mainly been trained as midwives (51.4%) and graduate nurses (33.8%). Respondents were predominantly Christians (97.3%). The study discovered that only 18.9% of the tutors knew all the legal indications under which safe abortion care could be provided. The content of pre-service training of tutors did not include uterine evacuation with manual vacuum aspirator (MVA). The study also highlighted some factors that influence midwifery tutors' willingness to teach comprehensive abortion care. It was also revealed that personal and religious beliefs greatly influence teaching of Comprehensive Abortion Care.
The complete article is available at http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/8/1/2/abstract.