The HRH2030 program, Human Resources for Health in 2030, was established to address the challenges of the health workforce in developing countries. The program’s core theme in Year 1 focused on assisting countries to optimize the use of their existing health resources, rather than solely relying on increasing the number of health workers. This approach emphasizes the importance of accessibility, acceptability, quality, and performance of the health workforce.
The program’s core-funded activities in Year 1 centered on building the capacity of PEPFAR implementing partners in Malawi to use existing tools to improve performance and productivity. HRH2030 partner Palladium used population and service data to assist decision-makers in better deploying human resources and matching health workforce skill sets with population needs. Additionally, the program engaged in a process to examine the use of the Training Resource Package for Family Planning (TRP), with the aim of providing guidance to those who want to use the TRP.
In Cameroon, the program used a leadership approach to support local leaders in ensuring that family planning services were responsive to local needs. This involved relying on the expertise of Amref to develop leadership capacity among local leaders. The program also assisted USAID and the World Health Organization (WHO) in convening a regional meeting in Africa to focus on the implementation of the National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWAs).
The HRH2030 program has four objectives: increasing the performance and productivity of the health workforce, increasing the number, skill mix, and competency of the health workforce, strengthening HRH/Health System Strengthening (HSS) leadership and governance capacity, and increasing the sustainability of investment in the health workforce. During Year 1, there were no core-funded activities under Objective 2, which focuses on increasing the number, skill mix, and competency of the health workforce.
The program’s approach to addressing the challenges of the health workforce emphasizes the importance of optimizing the use of existing resources, rather than solely relying on increasing the number of health workers. This approach recognizes that the addition of more health workers, along with the corresponding financial commitment, is often not achievable by most countries and is rarely the best or only solution. Instead, the program focuses on helping local counterparts to support the existing workforce to be as productive and efficient as possible, so that when additional resources are available, those investments support an efficient and effective health workforce.