It has been more than five months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and it continues to ravage communities, countries, and health systems with no end in sight. Health workers on the front lines are physically exhausted, emotionally drained, completely under resourced, and in desperate need of sustained support. While this pandemic is…
This post originally appeared on the USGLC blog on July 8, 2020. Despite the multiple mechanisms that exist to respond to infectious disease threats, including the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations and the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), only 11 percent of countries have plans to dispense medical countermeasures during health emergencies and 27 percent have an updated…
Over the last 20 years, global efforts have dramatically reduced the malaria burden thanks to innovative partnerships and sustained funding to scale-up effective interventions and use better data for decision-making. More countries are closer than ever to elimination. But there is still work to be done, especially as new public health threats such as…
There are simply not enough health workers to meet the basic health needs of all people worldwide. This prevents development practitioners from contributing to higher-performing health systems, as we struggle to make the most with the health professionals we have available, who are often concentrated in urban areas, working in professional silos, and failing to…
We’d like you to meet Grace Namaganda! Grace is a human resources for health and management specialist. Grace is the country director of the USAID Human Resources for Health in 2030 (HRH2030) program in Malawi. She shares her 15 years of experience working in the public health sector and explains how she has worked with…
This post was adapted from a story that originally appeared on the USAID HRH2030 program’s website. Effective partnerships allow stakeholders to apply lessons learned and adapt methodologies to meet the needs of beneficiaries. In Colombia, the Human Resources for Health in 2030 Program (HRH2030) is partnering with local organizations to learn from the country’s social…
On a recent visit to a rural village in Dioila district, part of the Koulikoro region in Mali, I met with the local women’s group to discuss how to promote family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and how to increase access to these services in their community. There, surrounded by more than 100 volunteers who…
When the government of Bangladesh, a country with high rates of maternal mortality, invested in midwifery training programs in 2015, many of the newly minted midwives from the first cohort headed to Cox’s Bazar to provide services to thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing deadly violence in Myanmar. Though female community health workers (FCHWs) operate in…
Structured by a conceptual framework and taxonomy to classify the inputs, processes, and results for 45 documented supervision approaches, HRH2030 elaborated findings from the analysis, as well as two case studies of most promising approaches. This work is presented as both a summary report and as a taxonomy of approaches for use and reference by health sector…
Access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene is a basic human right and is critical in healthcare facilities (HCFs). The absence of basic water and sanitation services in HCFs compromises healthcare workers’ ability to provide effective healthcare, as it puts both them and patients at a greater risk of infection and illness. However, one in…
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15 to 20 percent of people globally have a disability and 80 percent of them live in a developing country. This means that more than 900 million people with disabilities live in a low- or middle-income setting. These individuals face a variety of barriers, including restrictive and stigmatizing…