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The health sectors in many sub-Saharan countries face a human resource crisis. Health workers - the people who provide health care to those who need it - are the heart of health systems. But around the world, the health workforce is in crisis - a crisis to which no country is entirely immune. According to the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), there are 7.5 doctors to every 100,000 people in Zambia. The results are evident: clinics with no health workers and hospitals that cannot recruit or keep key staff. A report provides a dismal picture of a health center at Musangu Village in Mwense District, Luapula Province. Only one trained medical assistant, Francis Katembo, attends to more than 200 patients in a day.
Given the severity of the crisis, it is appropriate for the World Health Organization (WHO) to devote the 2006 World Health Day (celebrated annually on 7 April) to the health workforce crisis, under the theme: “Working Together for Health.”
Speaking on this year’s theme, the United States Ambassador to Zambia, Ms. Carmen Martinez, stated: “As Zambia’s health sector human resource crisis has emerged and grown, the U.S. Government has been, and will continue to be, committed to working with the Government of the Republic of Zambia to support Human Resources for Health. “The U.S. Government joins Zambia in celebrating World Health Day 2006 and working together for health.”
The U.S. has been supporting the health sector in Zambia since 1992, mostly through interventions of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. provides technical and financial support to the Ministry of Health, National HIV/AIDS/TB/STI Council and other Zambian partners to address many human resource challenges. The U.S. is also responding to immediate staffing needs in the public sector by seconding Clinical Care Specialists for each Provincial Health Office and clinical and administrative staff for critical health facilities. It also supports the existing physician’s rural retention scheme and the planned extension to other cadres. Health staff working conditions have been improved through renovating and expanding both clinic facilities and staff quarters, providing drugs, equipment and supplies for service delivery, and upgrading computer, radio and phone communications.
Increasing the number of trained staff and improving their productivity and performance are key objectives of the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Strategic Plan 2006-2010 for Zambia. The U.S. is working effectively with the Government of Zambia and other partners in support of the Plan to update pre-service curricula for nurses, midwives, Clinical Officers and Environmental Health Technicians; design and deliver in-service training in HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, reproductive health, maternal health, child health, and health management and systems; develop new learning approaches, particularly ones which reduce health workers’ time away from their jobs; and by supporting 74 Zambians since 1997 to study for Masters degrees.
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