Human Resources for Health
Background:
The Health Sector Reform in Tanzania depends on the availability of adequately trained and qualified staff for effective and efficient health service delivery. Human resources are one of the main components of health systems. Problems related to human resources are well known: chronic shortages of skilled personnel, low levels of motivation, and uneven deployment of health staff in relation to population distribution and poverty levels. Without motivation of health professionals most programmes / projects are bound to fail.
Component area:
Human resources development remains the central government's responsibility (to a large extent), therefore establishments of appropriate schools, curricula, remunneration, are some of the key elements that should be taken into account.
Human resources for Health (HRH) is an overarching issue and interventions range from support to the training of district health staff, using the Zonal Training Centers / Zonal Health Training Institutes, to support for the Masters of Public Health Course at the Muhimbili School of Public Health and Social Sciences.
Approach:
Most countries have no developed standards, those few which have standars, sometimes face challenges of implementing due to high costs. One of the first steps in improving human resources development is to analyse the deficiences and take corrective action.
The TGPSH component Human Resources for Health supports the following areas of vital importance for effective and efficient delivery of health care services.
Modular Course in District Health Management - The main focus of the cooperation on this area lies on building capacity at district level to support the health services decentralization process for a health sector undergoing reform. In a Planning workshop heald with stakeholders in Arusha, January 2003, the participants designed an outline for a modualr district management course which contains compulsory basic parts as well asmodules for specialization. Council Health Management Teams (CHMTs) are given the opportunity to join management training within their zones.
Masters Course in Public Health (MPH) - TGPSH supports medical students and health workers in getting their masters degree.The goal of the programme is to prepare the MPH graduate as a Health Mangement Officer within the community as the main focal point who will be a member of health planning and management committees in the govenrment as well as non-governmental organizations; a professional in Public Health matters and also a chief liaison officer of MoHSW.
Muhimbili Health Exchange Forum (MuHEF) - an initiative to facilitate communication and the flow of health information to and from the districts, regions, health experts and postgraduate students.
Connect and Learn Initiative - the overall goal of the project is to use modern Information and Communciation Technologies (ICTs) i.e. computers and the internet to disseminate health information to the identified disadvatanged, but not exclusively , youth and women.
More details of the key areas of our HRH Component are explained in the relevant webpages.