Human Resources for Health

Impoverished countries face what has been termed a human resource crisis. Decades of under-resourced training programs, low public sector wages, and poor working conditions have led to shortages of health workers and the underperformance of staff where the burden of disease is the highest. In this chapter, the causes of the human resource crisis are explained and the gaps in training and retention of personnel are described. The chapter outlines new programs, such as the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI), and the Rwanda government’s national Human Resources for Health program. All of these programs are working with governments to increase the numbers of health professionals trained and improve their clinical capacity through long-term training and mentorship.