[EQ] 10 best resources on: health workers in developing countries

10 best resources on: health workers in developing countries

Karen A Gre´pin 1 and William D Savedoff

1 Assistant Professor, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service,  ew York University, New York, NY

2 Senior Partner, Social Insight, Portland, ME, USA.

Available online at: http://bit.ly/bHAveF

 

 

KEY MESSAGES

·          Until recently researchers and policymakers paid little attention to the role of health workers in developing countries but a new generation of studies are providing a fuller understanding of these issues using more sophisticated data and research tools.

·          Recent research highlights the value of viewing health workers as active agents in dynamic labour markets who are faced with many competing incentives and constraints.

·          Newer studies have provided greater insights into human resource requirements in health, the motivations and behaviours of health workers, and health worker migration. We are encouraged by the progress but believe there is a need for even more, and higher quality, research on this topic.

 

Our goal in this essay is not so much to present the ‘10 best’ resources on health workers, which would be presumptuous to say the least, but rather to introduce this new generation of research by highlighting a number of good research articles that demonstrate this trend.

 

These articles share a growing awareness that the number and quality of health workers engaged in health care services is influenced by more than government decisions about spending and deployment. They encompass the behaviour of private practitioners and nongovernmental organizations; people who seek health care; and health workers themselves as they make choices about their training, employment, location and work effort, all within a context defined by the broader labour market, politics and culture.

 

This is why recent research is often framed within the perspective of labour market analysis even if it emerges from fields like political science, sociology, anthropology, public administration and business management.

 

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