Editors:

Marge Berer

Date of publication:

2006

Published by:

RHM’s Publications

ARC Catalog Number:

HN3.1.R435

Description:

Increasingly high expectations are being placed on health systems to deliver better health outcomes. This journal issue is about the human resource base in sexual and reproductive health services in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Lithuania, Mongolia, Morocco and Zambia, and in AIDS treatment programmes in Malawi and sub-Saharan Africa. The papers focus primarily on family planning, maternal health care, unsafe abortion and scaling up of HIV antiretroviral treatment. Efforts to recruit more health workers, provide better training and skills, improve working conditions and salaries are all covered. Macro-economic constraints on employment are also analyzed. Sometimes, the positive influence health care providers seek to have on women’s health outcomes may be foiled. The preferences of the community and those of health workers may also conflict, e.g. regarding place and type of delivery car provided. Finally, efforts to build health workers’ skills and quality of services may be supported or undermined by governments and policy changes.