Increasing skilled birth attendance through midwifery workforce management.

Policy makers and development partners struggle to help find solutions to the high rates of maternal and newborn mortality in many low and middle income countries. Increasing access to midwives and health workers skilled in midwifery can help to alleviate the situation. We aim to contribute to the debate on strategies to increase access to skilled birth attendance by sharing our views, illustrated with as yet unpublished case stories that were recognized with Awards of Excellence at the Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, 2011, held in Bangkok, Thailand. The correlation between access to skilled birth attendance and the density of midwives, nurses and doctors has been well established in the literature. How to cost-effectively scale up skilled birth attendance in low and middle income countries, however, remains a matter of debate. This article is based on a review of success stories in midwifery workforce management and innovations in increasing population access to midwives and other health workers skilled in midwifery. We draw on case stories from three low resource settings: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nigeria. Addressing the problem of access to skilled birth attendance, some countries are making good progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. Unshakeable political will and financial commitment are fundamental.

Global Health Workforce Alliance: increasing the momentum for health workforce development.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance was launched in 2006 to provide a joint platform for governments, development partners, international agencies, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, professional associations, and other stakeholders to work together to address a global crisis in human resources for health. Five years later the vision and mandate of the Alliance still remain valid. Despite advances in bringing the health workforce to the fore in international health policy arenas, more available knowledge and tools, and encouraging signs of commitments from many countries, health workforce bottlenecks continue to prevent many health systems from delivering essential and quality health services. Latin America is not spared from the challenges. The 2010 Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health provided an opportunity to review progress, identify persisting gaps, reach consensus on solutions, and renew the momentum for and commitment to acutely needed investment and actions.

Alianza mundial en pro del personal sanitario: aumentando el impulso para el desarrollo de personal de la salud / Global health workforce alliance: increasing the momentum for health workforce development

La Alianza en Pro del Personal Sanitario fue lanzada en el año 2006 para brindar una plataforma conjunta a los gobiernos, a las asociaciones de desarrollo, las agencias internacionales, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, academia, el sector privado, las asociaciones profesionales y otros actores interesados, para trabajar juntos a fin de enfrentar la crisis global de los recursos humanos en salud. Cinco años después, la visión y el mandato de la Alianza aún son válidos. A pesar de los avances, como el ubicar a personal de la salud en el ruedo internacional de la política de salud, el aumento del conocimiento, las herramientas disponibles y las señales alentadoras de compromisos de muchos países, los cuellos de botella de la fuerza laboral de la salud siguen impidiendo a muchos sistemas de salud entregar servicios de salud esenciales y de calidad. América Latina no está libre de estos desafíos. En el 2010 el Segundo Foro Mundial sobre Recursos Humanos para la Salud permitió revisar el progreso, identificar brechas persistentes, alcanzar un consenso sobre soluciones y renovar el impulso para el compromiso de las inversiones y actuaciones urgentemente requeridas.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance was launched in 2006 to provide a joint platform for governments, development partners, international agencies, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, professional associations, and other stakeholders to work together to address a global crisis in human resources for health. Five years later the vision and mandate of the Alliance still remain valid. Despite advances in bringing the health workforce to the fore in international health policy arenas, more available knowledge and tools, and encouraging signs of commitments from many countries, health workforce bottlenecks continue to prevent many health systems from delivering essential and quality health services. Latin America is not spared from the challenges. The 2010 Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health provided an opportunity to review progress, identify persisting gaps, reach consensus on solutions, and renew the momentum for and commitment to acutely needed investment and actions.

A 21st century approach to assessing the protection of workers' health.

OBJECTIVE: This article presents a rights-based approach to the way occupational health and safety is understood, departing from medical, engineering, and technocratic approaches that dominated the field throughout the 20th century. Moving toward a 21st century concept of the good society - based on citizenship rights and principles of universalism - a social protection-based system of assessing governments' performance in protecting workers' health and well-being is proffered. METHODS: A Work Security Index (WSI) is used as a benchmarking system for evaluating national or local level governments' performance in this domain. Data from 95 countries in all regions of the world were used. A pioneering tool the WSI grouped and ranked countries based on governments' protection of workers' health and safety. PARTICIPANTS: Data represent findings from 95 national governments, as well as workers and employers. RESULTS: Among 95 countries, most have much work to do to provide the minimum measures to protect their working populations. Results reveal that women workers face particular social and economic insecurities and inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: We attempt to inform a broad audience about the WSI, how it can be used at multiple levels in any country for the protection of workers' health, safety, and well-being, and the need to do so.

Stiff reminders, and regenerating for the future: a commentary on "Man as the measure of all things".

Margrit Hugentobler's article, "Man as the Measure of All Things: A Limiting Approach to Urban Regeneration?," took to task the challenges of sustainable development that neither governments nor industry have yet met on the scale that is needed. From a planner's perspective, she gives a philosophical context. In essence, her message is that through thoughtful regeneration, urban environments can become more sustainable and that urban regeneration can meet a variety of human and environmental needs. She proposes a new model, using a multidisciplinary approach to urban regeneration and development.

Technical assistance to the grassroots, part ii: erin brockovich revisited--a lesson for social policy-making and agency.

Reading "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical information" by Barbara Berney (New Solutions, Vol. 15, No. 1), I was overtaken by a subliminal image of Erin Brockovich (looking like Julia Roberts), who was a self-taught technical assistance provider (TA). For progressives, radicals, for those who apply participatory methods in research, for those familiar with the work of Paolo Freire and the benefits of building critical consciousness, there are some interesting extensions that can be drawn from the success stories of TAs working with grassroots groups.

Working at the check-in: consequences for health.

No body of literature exists related specifically to the occupational health of airport check-in workers. The problems encountered by airport check-in workers are typical of other service-sector occupations with similar work-related health hazards, particularly those characterized by a high level of demand with low worker control, performed predominantly by women. The knowledge gap could be narrowed by broadening the scope in both traditional occupational health and ergonomics studies to take into equal consideration jobs performed by women. In an attempt to reduce the knowledge gap specific to airport check-in workers, literature was reviewed on several other worker populations whose job characteristics include elements similar to airport check-in work: computer clerical workers, supermarket check-in workers, and airport baggage handlers. This cross-population review identified the major elements that have been studied in the comparison groups, compared with the factors examined in a study of check-in workers. The review demonstrates that jobs that may appear completely different from the outside, might, upon closer examination, have numerous common exposures from a variety of sources. Thus, knowledge about one job may be useful for another that has not been investigated. The literature review reveals that it would be useful to extend to airport check-in workers recommendations from studies of the three comparison populations.

Chinese workers never die: immortality or elusive statistics?

Have Chinese workers discovered immortality? No, but it appears that some of their employers may have--at least on paper.

Work security in a global economy.

Work security is a fundamental right of all working people. After World War II, the welfare state became an intrinsic part of the "Golden Age" of capitalism, in which universal prosperity seemed attainable. Workers' organizations frequently played a crucial role in policy decisions that promoted full employment, income stability, and equitable treatment of workers. Today's world order is quite different. Globalization in its present form is a major obstacle to work security. Globalization is not simply a market-driven phenomenon. It is a political and ideological movement that grants authority to capital over governments and labor. This transfer of authority hinders national efforts to promote work security and may impact the well-being of communities worldwide. In the absence of domestic autonomy, international labor standards are needed to protect social welfare. They should be geared toward curbing unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion in the global economy. The article looks at three initiatives to promote global work security.