HR-HR - Human Resources for Health Research: a neglected area of Human Resources for Health

The debate on Human Resources for Health (HRH) is growing in importance in the international development community and is the theme of the WHO 2006 World Health Report. HRH has attracted much attention due to the large numbers of health care workers, medical staff and qualified doctors, trained in developing countries and hired to worked in health care systems in the North America and Europe.

This brain drain has been the subject of much debate in the past decade. The WHO’s World Health Report and Global Health Watch – the alternative world health report produced by a consortium of civil society organisations, with input from COHRED – both describe the problem and are starting to propose solutions to address it.

‘HR-HR’ – Human Resources for Health Research
In contrast to the attention focused on brain drain of health care workers, the area of human resources for health research is all but forgotten in the HRH picture.

The need to focus attention on human resources needs for the health research sector (HR-HR) in developing countries was initiated by COHRED in 2004, as the COHRED team looked at the key issues it would address in supporting countries to build their health research systems.

A close look at the situations faced by low-income countries reveals that the starting point for a well functioning national health research system is a skilled and motivated cadre of research professionals and research managers. And this must be supported by systems to develop, manage and motivate them.

‘HR-HR’ - Human Resources for Health Research: an African Perspective One regional initiative resulting from the HR-HR thinking is a joint initiative in Africa with COHRED, African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), EQUINET, African Council on Sustainable Health Development (ACOSHED), Global Forum for Health Research, African Health Research Forum, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The HR-HR Africa process aims to provide an action-oriented and holistic look at human resources needs in a health research context. A first meeting to be held in Nairobi in July 2006 will consider important facets of human resources that are generally not considered, and that deal with the support to make research more likely to result in impact. The initiative has convened multi-country teams to generate new thinking around four core themes: