Guidelines and tools for organizing and conducting maternal death reviews.

Maternal death reviews (MDRs) provide the multidisciplinary maternity care team with a process to conduct in-depth review of the health care and circumstances surrounding maternal deaths. From these reviews, recommendations to improve care in primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare settings can be made. Practical guidelines and training curricula for MDRs are lacking. To fill this gap, a manual comprising guidelines and tools to help health professionals conduct structured MDRs was developed through the FIGO LOGIC initiative.

Training health professionals in conducting maternal death reviews.

In countries where maternal death review (MDR) sessions are proposed as an intervention to improve quality of obstetric care, training focuses on the theory behind this method. However, experience shows that health staff lack confidence to apply the theory if they have not attended a practical training session. To address this problem, a training curriculum based on the new guidelines from the FIGO Leadership in Obstetrics and Gynecology for Impact and Change (LOGIC) Initiative for preparing and conducting MDR sessions was designed and tested in Cameroon. This curriculum is competency-based and consists primarily of practical individual or group exercises.

Results from implementation of aid effectiveness principles in the health sector in Mali.

The international community holds high expectations for aid producing demonstrable results in the health sector, at the global and developing country levels. Yet, measuring the effectiveness of aid presents methodological challenges. Existing evaluation frameworks are not sufficiently geared toward learning whether and how practices have changed. We present a framework for measuring the results of implementing aid effectiveness principles at three levels: implementation process, health system strengthening, and outcomes/impact. We developed this framework in the context of monitoring results on the effectiveness of the aid agenda in the health sector in Mali. Despite some changes in behavior that resulted in increased aid effectiveness and improved results at system and outcome levels, overall, the aid effectiveness principles have not been fully implemented. Thus expectations in terms of health outcomes should be realistic.

Motivation of human resources for health: a case study at rural district level in Tanzania.

An increasing number of studies explore the association between financial and non-financial incentives and the retention of health workers in developing countries. This study aims to contribute to empirical evidence on human resource for health motivation factors to assist policy makers in promoting effective and realistic interventions. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four rural Tanzanian districts to explore staff stability and health workers' motivation. Data were collected using qualitative and quantitative techniques, covering all levels and types of health facilities. Stability of staff was found to be quite high. Public institutions remained very attractive with better job security, salary and retirement benefits. Satisfaction over working conditions was very low owing to inadequate working equipment, work overload, lack of services, difficult environment, favouritism and 'empty promotions'. Positive incentives mentioned were support for career development and supportive supervision. Attracting new staff in rural areas appeared to be more difficult than retaining staff in place. The study concluded that strategies to better motivate health personnel should focus on adequate remuneration, positive working and living environment and supportive management. However, by multiplying health facilities, the latest Tanzanian human resource for health plan could jeopardize current positive results.