Innovative health human resources

Health systems around the world face structural problems causing direct impact on human resources, and in particular on: 

• the number of professionals available;
• the quality of training and the ability to meet the needs of target populations.

This shortage of trained and available resources increases the rate of preventable mortality and causes problems of under-diagnosis or misdiagnosis to persist in under-resourced areas. These issues are an obstacle to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC).

The issue of the qualification of health professionals is a major challenge. Addressing it involves adapting training curricula to the epidemiological realities of the action’s target areas.

To address these issues, the support project to bolster health human resources is helping to improve health service access and quality via capacity-building for health personnel in the target countries.

The project’s three action priorities involve:

1. strengthening and professionalising the Network of Francophone Public Health Institutions (REFESP);
2. supporting innovative projects to improve health human resources;
3. promoting project knowledge to foster the mobilisation of sustainable financial and technical resources.

Through these actions, the project is helping to consolidate a community of Francophone stakeholders committed to health systems that are stronger and more equitable and sustainable.

The Network of Francophone Public Health Institutions (REFESP) was created with the goal of bringing together higher education institutions providing public-health training recognised by the competent national authority of each Member State. It was formed on March 18, 2021, under the impetus of the EHESP French School of Public Health, with the support of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF).

As part of the project, this still young and geographically dispersed network will receive support to improve its governance and to structure its actions in the field of health human resources and public health.

Support will be provided to leaders of innovative initiatives in the field of health human resources, with special sensitivity to gender and climate-change issues.

Identification of these innovative initiatives (development of advanced practices, distance-training schemes, etc.) will be based on mobilising the AFD Group network and on broadly publishing an international call for projects.

The selected projects will receive support tailored to their specific needs, which may take the form of grant contracts, technical assistance, or opportunity and feasibility studies carried out in particular by mobilising the Cap Compétences facility.

The project’s third action priority is to produce and capitalise on knowledge for scientific advocacy purposes. Its objective is to demonstrate the added value of the project, both on the theme addressed and on its form of action – in particular as a model or system promoting the scaling up of innovative initiatives.

In addition, the project seeks to mobilise the expertise accumulated over the course of the various actions, and in this way support the carrying out of feasibility studies or experiments on innovative projects.