Follow-up on commitments at the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health: Indonesia, Sudan, Tanzania : "A commitment is a promise, a promise is a debt".
This study sought to assess actions which Indonesia, Sudan, and Tanzania took to implement the health workforce commitments they made at the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health (HRH) in November 2013. The study was conducted through a survey of published and gray literature in English and field research consisting of direct contacts with relevant ministries and agencies. Results show that the three countries implemented interventions to translate their commitments into actions. The three countries focused their commitments on improving the availability, geographical accessibility, quality of education, and performance of health workers. The implementation of the Recife commitments primarily entailed initiatives at the central level, such as the adoption of new legislation or the development of accreditation mechanisms. This study shows that action is more likely to take place when policy documents explicitly recognize and document HRH problems, when stakeholders are involved in the formulation and the implementation of policy changes, and when external support is available. The Recife Forum appears to have created an opportunity to advance the HRH policy agenda, and advocates of health workforce development in these three countries took advantage of it.
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, WHO Collaborating Center on Health Workforce Policy and Planning, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Lisbon, Portugal. gillesdussault@ihmt.unl.pt.
Gilles
G
Dussault
Sudan Medical Specialization Board, Khartoum, Sudan.
Elsheikh
E
Badr
WHO-Indonesia country office, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hartiah
H
Haroen
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Martin
M
Mapunda
Ministry of Health, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Achmad Soebagja Tancarino
AS
Mars
Ministry of Health, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Kirana
K
Pritasari
Global Health Workforce Alliance, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Giorgio
G
Cometto
D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003906:Developing Countries; D014943:Global Health; D006282:Health Personnel; D006291:Health Policy; D006296:Health Services; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D013192:Staff Development; D013397:Sudan; D013636:Tanzania; D000078329:Workforce
Evaluation; Health workforce commitments; Health workforce policies; Indonesia; Monitoring; Policy analysis; Sudan; Tanzania; Third Global Forum