Human Resources Management

Empowering Health Workers to Improve Service Delivery in Uganda

Carol Bales — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 13:55:11 +0000

This post was originally published on USAID’s IMPACT blog.

Agnes Masagwayi has a fierce determination to give her community the best possible care. But as a clinical health officer in Mbale District, Uganda, she knows how difficult it can be.

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer and Carol Bales

Publication Date:

December 2013

Hundreds of HR Management Professionals Network and Learn in Nairobi

Carol Bales — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:29:15 +0000

It was a great opportunity for me to sit among hundreds of human resources professionals from Kenya and the East Africa region during the recent 16th National human resources management forum organized by the Kenya Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) in Nairobi. The forum was graced with highly experienced and resourceful facilitators from different sectors and it was very exciting to learn from their experiences, successes, and challenges.

A key highlight for me was hearing the direction that most successful institutions are now taking in managing their human resources—focusing more on the strategic function of human resources management (HRM) over the administrative components. They are placing an emphasis on talent management as a way to have the upper edge in a competitive environment, while acknowledging effective talent management processes begin with careful selection and deployment practices, or “getting it right from the start.”

Author's name:

Doris Mwarey

Publication Date:

December 2011

Training Managers to Transform the Health System

jennifer — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:29:14 +0000

This blog post is excerpted from an original post on the IntraHealth International blog.

We often talk about how countries grapple with the challenge of building and maintaining a health workforce that can deliver high-quality health services. I wanted to share some recent successes from Uganda, and work being supported by the Uganda Capacity Program.

In an effort to staff the health sector with managers who possess the knowledge, skills, and professional attitudes required to assume leadership roles in Uganda’s public and private health systems, the Uganda Capacity Program, together with CapacityPlus, recently launched a collaborative training program with the Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Makerere University School of Public Health.

Author's name:

Charles Matsiko

Publication Date:

December 2010

Ghana Looking to Score Big on Training Goals

jennifer — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:58:53 +0000

At my hotel in Accra, Ghana, there's a buzz of activity throughout the first week in October, as the national football team—the Black Stars of Ghana—converged for the first home match since their successful World Cup campaign in South Africa. For me, this trip was also a homecoming. Until this past year when I’ve resided in Washington, DC, I’d spent the better part of the last 20 years living in Africa.

However, my trip to Ghana with colleague Anne Wilson was not for football. Our brief was to look at preservice training of the health workforce, with a busy schedule of discussions, meetings, and field visits with stakeholders and implementing partners—including the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, the Health Workforce Observatory, and the main health training schools and teaching hospitals.

Author's name:

Paul Marsden

Publication Date:

November 2010

No More Business as Usual: Strengthening Health Sector Human Resources Management

Sarah Dwyer — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:53:35 +0000

On August 18, I saw these words in front of me:

“The ‘competency of HR workers’ is one of seven ‘major obstacles to building a first-class federal workforce’. […] It's not that the human relations professionals are incompetent. They don't have the training or the technology needed to keep up with a quickly changing workplace.”

I didn’t write these, but I could have. In the recent Washington Post article “Key personnel officials identify obstacles to federal hiring reforms”, I was struck by the similarities between the human resources (HR) situation described and the situation I often find in the health sector in many developing countries, including those where CapacityPlus is active.

Obstacles in the US and globally
The article, describing recent reforms in federal government hiring, highlights the challenges to realizing these—such as limitations in the competencies, skills level, and technology limitations of existing HR officials. Additionally, it flags the need to overhaul various human resources management (HRM) functions and competencies.

Author's name:

Paul Marsden

Publication Date:

August 2010