Integrating human resource issues into planning and implementing reform
The interface between health sector reform and human resources in health
A framework to understand the interrelationships connecting health sector reform processes and human resources
Authors:
F. Rigloi; G. Dussault
Publisher:
Human Resources for Health, 2003
The impact of health sector reform has modified critical aspects of the health workforce, including labour conditions, degree of decentralisation of management, required skills and the entire system of wages and incentives. Human resources in health, crucial as they are in implementing changes in the delivery system, have had their voice heard in many subtle and open ways - reacting to transformations, supporting, blocking and distorting the proposed ways of action.
This article, published by the journal Human Resources for Health, reviews evidence on how individual or collective actions of human resources are shaping reforms, by spotlighting the reform process, the workforce reactions and the factors determining successful human resources participation. It attempts to provide a more powerful way of predicting the effects and interactions in which different "technical designs" operate when they interact with the human resources they affect. The article describes the nature of the relationship between the objectives and strategies of the reforms and the objectives and strategies of those who must implement them. [adapted from author]
