CapacityPlus improved human resources for health (HRH) measurement and monitoring and evaluation capacity at the country level and developed an HRH Effort Index for national and subnational application to spur policy changes and enable cross-country comparisons.
The Human Resources for Health (HRH) Effort Index is designed to improve the measurement of inputs to and outcomes of national HRH programs. The Effort Index also monitors country progress and changes over time. The focus of the Index is on collective, national-level HRH efforts, as opposed to efforts made by individual projects, nongovernmental organizations, or other stakeholders. This survey is designed to collect information leading to the construction of such index.
This compendium provides a list of published indicators on human resources for health (HRH) and is intended as a tool for HRH systems strengthening practitioners interested in monitoring HRH projects and programs.
These guidelines are intended to give stakeholders an overview of the process for developing M&E plans that are an integral component of HRH plans. This document complements existing M&E resources, such as national and regional M&E plans for malaria and HIV/AIDS, in that it provides the general steps required to develop an M&E plan while also paying particular attention to HRH-specific considerations, challenges, and indicators. The guidelines focus on national-level M&E plans for HRH, but they can also be applied at regional, district, and subdistrict levels.
Successful mLearning Pilot in Senegal: Delivering Family Planning Refresher Training Using Interactive Voice Response and SMS
June 2015 by Abdoulaye Diedhiou, Kate E Gilroy, Carie Muntifering Cox, Luke Duncan, Djimadoum Koumtingue, Sara Pacqué-Margolis, Alfredo Fort, Dykki Settle, Rebecca Bailey
This article in the June 2015 issue of Global Health: Science and Practice highlights the results of an assessment CapacityPlus conducted in Senegal of a prototype mLearning system that uses interactive voice response (IVR) and text messaging on basic mobile phones. IVR allows trainees to respond to audio recordings using their telephone keypads. The pilot included offering a refresher training course on the management of contraceptive side effects and misconceptions to 20 public-sector nurses and midwives in working in Mékhé and Tivaouane districts in the Thiès region. The authors concluded that the mLearning system proved appropriate, feasible, and acceptable to trainees, and it was associated with sustained knowledge gains.
Use of an Interactive Voice Response System to Deliver Refresher Training in Senegal: Findings from Pilot Implementation and Assessment
March 2015 by Kate E. Gilroy, Abdoulaye Diedhiou, Carie Muntifering Cox, Luke Duncan, Djim Koumtingue, Sara Pacqué-Margolis, Alfredo Fort, Dykki Settle, and Rebecca Bailey
In-service training reinforces and updates health workers’ knowledge, but it is often expensive and requires providers to leave their posts. Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology—possible with any type of phone—that delivers information via audio recordings and allows users to provide feedback by pressing a number key. CapacityPlus developed, deployed, and assessed an innovative mLearning system that used a combination of IVR and SMS text messaging to deliver refresher training to family planning providers in Senegal, focusing on management of contraceptive side effects and counseling to dispel misconceptions. The pilot application among 20 midwives, nurses, nursing assistants, and health agents took place in two districts in Thiès Region of Senegal. Evaluation findings showed that an mLearning system that delivers refresher training to family planning providers via simple mobile phones using IVR and SMS text is appropriate, feasible, acceptable, and associated with sustained gains in knowledge.
CapacityPlus’s Human Resources for Health (HRH) Effort Index is a tool to obtain HRH indicators contributing to health systems strengthening. Shared at the Global Health Mini-University in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2015, this presentation gives an overview of the tool and findings from pilot testing in Kenya and Nigeria.
Human resources for health (HRH) are an essential component of health systems and crucial to increased accessibility and quality of services. However, there is a scarcity of HRH indicators and the few that exist are often unreliable, inconsistently related to outcomes, or do not inform on the multidimensional nature of the area. Based on HRH and performance-based frameworks, CapacityPlus and a technical advisory group developed the HRH Effort Index to measure inputs and outputs in HRH. Presented at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok (January 26–31, 2015), this poster highlights preliminary results from testing the HRH Effort Index in Kenya and Nigeria.
