Research Grants on Equity in Human Resources for Health,
03/04
EQUINET BRIEFING: Call for Applicants for Research Grants/Awards
on Equity in the Distribution of Health Personnel
Equinet Secretariat with Health Systems Trust SA, January 2004
This call closes on March 12th 2004.
The Regional Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa
(EQUINET) and Health Systems Trust South Africa (HST) are inviting expressions of interest
from individuals or organisations
based within the region to contribute to a programme of work on
Equity in the Distribution of Personnel in Southern Africa.
The programme seeks to promote the equitable distribution of
health personnel in southern Africa through review, dialogue on
and proposal of policy tools for equity in health personnel distribution in southern
Africa, for dealing with attrition of
health personnel from southern Africa to selected high income
countries and for strengthening governance arrangements and systems for policy
interactions on health personnel issues.
The work is supported by an advisory panel of senior personnel
working on Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Southern Africa
and internationally. More detailed background information is
found in the EQUINET discussion document 3 and the concept brief
for this work at www.equinetafrica.org
The background review identified a number of issues listed below
for further research, analysis and advocacy that would guide future work. This does not
exclude other priorities raised and
justified in the response to the call.
PRODUCTION OF HEALTH PERSONNEL
Mapping of the burdens of health personnel losses across the region in relation to the
capacity to produce and replace person-
nel; Assessment of the appropriate and effective mix of personnel and the implications for
personnel production; Impact of mi-
gration on the quality and output of training institutions;
Analysis of the merits of various student recruitment initiatives designed to improve the
distribution of health personnel;
AVAILABILITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF HEALTH PERSONNEL
Information on health personnel distribution and movements
across private, public and traditional sectors; Cost-benefit
evaluation of the losses and gains of current flows to health
workers, to communities, to health systems and to countries;
Evaluation and analysis of information systems and planning capacities within public
health authorities; Mapping of relation-
ship between resource allocation inequalities and capacity to
demand and use resources; Exploration of the role of traditional
health personnel in mitigating gaps in western health services
MOVEMENT AND MIGRATION OF HEALTH PERSONNEL
Accurate information on the directions and volumes of health
personnel movement and their determinants within each of the
southern Africa countries, their impact on equity and performance of health services;
Comprehensive indicators reflecting the
consequence of the drain on health within each of the Southern
African countries; Mapping of the specific factors affecting internal and external
movements and the extent to which they are
linked with wider between- and out-of- country flows; Further
exploration of the regional health personnel brain drain, particularly by skills group;
Study of the replicability of the often unique pull and stay factors within missions to
the wider
health system
The programme will review the submissions for research and national activities on
equity in health personnel in southern Africa and hold a three day review meeting from
April 15th to 17th
2004 to review the analysis of HRH issues, draw inputs from policy, research and health
worker platforms, review of the proposed research and set the research and programme
priorities for
the HRH programme. EQUINET/HST will support accepted research
proposals for implementation of research studies and their peer
review and publication as a discussion paper series. We will
also hold national and regional meetings and consultations to
review findings and identify follow up policy or programme issues, including a regional
meeting in mid 2005 together with international research and policy networks on HRH (UK,
Australia
and Canada).
Interested applicants should submit a 1-2 page 'expression of
interest' concept note, a personal CV, and a sample document
written by the applicant on any relevant theme. The concept note
should include information on: A potential topic of focus, with
justification for the research and its potential use at local,
national, regional or international level; the applicant's interest in the topic and in
the broad field of work in HRH; the
applicant's key experiences and skills that have relevance to
this work.
Applicants should submit this information by 12th March 2004 to:
mailto:ant@hst.org.za
or by Fax to + 27-31-304-0775 (attention A Ntuli).
Applicants will be informed by 2nd April 2004 if they have been
successful. Applicants must be available to attend the regional
workshop on 15 - 17. 4. 2004 Participants of existing Equinet
programmes are welcome to apply.
For any queries about the programme please contact
<ant@hst.org.za>. For general queries on Equinet please e-mail:
mailto:admin@equinetafrica.org or visit the Equinet website at:
http://www.equinetafrica.org
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.