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Chapter 6 - Health Workforce in Low and Middle Income Countries

Concepts and Dynamics Unpacked

from Section 1 - Analyzing Health Systems: Concepts, Components, Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2022

By
Christopher H. Herbst ,
Jenny X. Liu  and
Francisca Ayodeji Akala
Edited by
Sameen Siddiqi ,
Awad Mataria ,
Katherine D. Rouleau  and
Meesha Iqbal
Sameen Siddiqi
Affiliation:
Aga Khan University
Awad Mataria
Affiliation:
World Health Organization, Egypt
Katherine D. Rouleau
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Meesha Iqbal
Affiliation:
UTHealth School of Public Health, Houston
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Summary

A well performing health workforce is critical for the success of any health system. A higher density of health workers vis-à-vis the population is associated with improved service coverage and health outcomes. This chapter highlights key considerations in identifying the critical health workforce challenges and the factors that influence them. It provides an overview of some of the conceptual underpinnings for a deeper understanding of the workforce issues, followed by a synopsis of specific low- and middle-income country (L&MIC) challenges and determinants related to workforce availability, distribution, and performance to improve service delivery and coverage goals. The desired health workforce should be able to effectively respond to the shifting health priorities of the population, given evolving disease burden and epidemiology, and deploy technological resources rationally and cost-effectively. This requires effectively matching the supply and skills of health workers to population needs, now and in the future.

Keywords

Health workerLabour marketMarket equilibriumUnemploymentWorkforce performanceWorkforce availabilityWorkforce distributionDiscrete choice experimentWorkforce shortageThree gap performance frameworkL&MIC
Type
Chapter
Information
Making Health Systems Work in Low and Middle Income Countries
Textbook for Public Health Practitioners
 , pp. 83 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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