title: Posting and transfer: key to fostering trust in government health services.
abstract: Appropriate deployment or posting and transfer (P&T) of health workers - placing the right people in the right positions at the right time - lies at the heart of fostering communities' faith in government health services and cementing the role of the health system as a core social institution. The authors of this paper have been involved in an ongoing transnational dialogue about P&T practices and determinants. This dialogue seeks to call attention to the importance of P&T as a health system function; to urge donors and policy-makers working in health systems, HRH and public administration governance to consider how to address issues around P&T; and to suggest avenues and approaches to research. P&T is a vexed and unresolved issue in many low- and middle-income countries that requires, above all, political commitment to improving public sector services and to new thinking and research. It holds promise as a focal point for inter-disciplinary collaboration in research and implementation that can inform other areas in HRH and health systems strengthening. Innovative social science and management theorizing, and iterative, locally driven interventions that focus on establishing transparent professional norms and building the credibility of government administration, including the health services, are likely the way forward.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India. kabir.sheikh@phfi.org.
authors.forename: Kabir
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sheikh
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA. lpf1@columbia.edu.|Averting Maternal Death and Disability, 60 Haven Ave., B3, New York, NY, 10032, USA. lpf1@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Freedman
authors.affiliation: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland. ghaffara@who.int.
authors.forename: Abdul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghaffar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. bmarchal@itg.be.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Marchal
authors.affiliation: American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. fe08@aub.edu.lb.
authors.forename: Fadi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: el-Jardali
authors.affiliation: TRG, Washington, DC, USA. jmccaffery@capacityplus.org.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCaffery
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'études et de recherches sur les dynamiques sociales et le développement local, Niamey, Niger. olivierdesardan@lasdel.net.
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre Olivier
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: de Sardan
authors.affiliation: Social Medicine Institute, University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. dalpozm@uerj.br.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dal Poz
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Equity and Governance in Health Systems, Guatemala City, Guatemala. waltergflores@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.affiliation: Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India. surekha.garimella@phfi.org.
authors.forename: Surekha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garimella
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA. mls2014@columbia.edu.|Averting Maternal Death and Disability, 60 Haven Ave., B3, New York, NY, 10032, USA. mls2014@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schaaf
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries; D006076:Government; D006282:Health Personnel; D006296:Health Services / Q000592:standards; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D010559:Personnel Management; D017150:Public Sector; D012941:Social Responsibility; D035502:Trust; D000078329:Workforce