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Human Resources in Humanitarian Health Working Group Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Laura Janneck ,
Nicholas Cooper ,
Seble Frehywot ,
Hani Mowafi  and
Karen Hein
Laura Janneck*
Affiliation:
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Nicholas Cooper
Affiliation:
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Seble Frehywot
Affiliation:
Assistant Research Professor of Health Policy and Global Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC USA
Hani Mowafi
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Karen Hein
Affiliation:
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York USA
*
MPH 2094 Clarence Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 44107 USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Humanitarian responses to conflict and disasters due to natural hazards usually operate in contexts of resource scarcity and unmet demands for healthcare workers. Task shifting is one avenue for delivering needed health care in resource poor settings, and on-the-ground reports indicate that task shifting may be applicable in humanitarian contexts. However, a variety of obstacles currently restrict the ability to employ task shifting in these situations, including issues of regulation, accreditation, funding, and a lack of commonly agreed-upon core competencies for different categories of humanitarian health workers. The Human Resources in Humanitarian Health (HRHH) Working Group during the 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit evaluated the potential strengths and weaknesses of task shifting in humanitarian relief efforts, and proposed a range of strategies to constructively integrate task shifting into humanitarian response.

Keywords

accreditationcommunity health workercompetencyhuman resourceshumanitarian healthresourcestask shifting
Type
Working Group 1
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 24 , supplement S2: 2009 Humanitarian Action Summit , August 2009 , pp. s184 - s193
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2009

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