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A review of non-financial incentives for health worker retention in East and Southern Africa
Incentives are crucial for retaining health workers in the public sector
Authors:
Y. M. Dambisya
Publisher:
EQUINET: Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa, 2007
This Equinet paper reviews evidence on the use of non-financial incentives for health worker retention in 16 countries in East and Southern Africa (ESA). Health workers are offered a variety of non-financial incentives including: training and career path-related incentives; incentives that address social needs (staff transport, childcare facilities, free food); improved working conditions and access to health care including anti-retroviral therapy. The paper finds that these incentives are not systematically documented in terms of their aims, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and timeframes.
The paper concludes that retention strategies improve the performance of the health system by increasing the pool of available skilled health workers and by increasing staff responsiveness to the needs of the patients. From an equity perspective, these strategies are crucial, as they are necessary for retaining health workers in the public sectors and in rural facilities, which largely serve the poorer members of the population.
The author recommends that: ESA countries continue to develop human resources for health information systems and personnel management systems; countries introduce incentive packages; countries use sustainable funding mechanisms to fund incentive schemes, such as national budgets or sector-wide approaches; managers take periodic review of their incentive schemes.
