title: An approach to estimating human resource requirements to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
abstract: In the context of the Millennium Development Goals, human resources represent the most critical constraint in achieving the targets. Therefore, it is important for health planners and decision-makers to identify what are the human resources required to meet those targets. Planning the human resources for health is a complex process. It needs to consider both the technical aspects related to estimating the number, skills and distribution of health personnel for meeting population health needs, and the political implications, values and choices that health policy- and decision-makers need to make within given resources limitations. After presenting an overview of the various methods for planning human resources for health, with their advantages and limitations, this paper proposes a methodological approach to estimating the requirements of human resources to achieve the goals set forth by the Millennium Declaration. The method builds on the service-target approach and functional job analysis.
authors.affiliation: Human Resources for Health, Cluster of Evidence and Information for Policy, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. dreeschn@who.int
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dreesch
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dolea
authors.forename: Mario R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Dal Poz
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goubarev
authors.forename: Orvill
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Maru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aregawi
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bergstrom
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fogstad
authors.forename: Della
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sheratt
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Linkins
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scherpbier
authors.forename: Mayada
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Youssef-Fox
mesh_terms: D014943:Global Health; D006285:Health Planning; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D014944:World Health Organization