Who are Health Managers ? A case study from three African countries

This publication, WHO, Human Resources for Health Observer - Issue No. 1, October 2009, co-funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), summarizes the findings of a study lead in Ethiopia, Ghana and United Republic of Tanzania. It looked at who the managers are and what their backgrounds are as well as whether they have effective support systems in an enabling organizational environment.

“Health managers are considered essential at both the strategic and operational levels of health systems. To gain an initial understanding of the management workforce for service delivery, a rapid descriptive assessment was undertaken in three African countries, namely Ethiopia, Ghana and the United Republic of Tanzania. The information from the study suggests a major lack of appreciation of this component of the health workforce and the catalytic role it can play in scaling up service delivery.

The first part of the paper covers the objectives and rationale for the studies and discusses a
WHO conceptual framework on which the analysis is based.
The second part examines the context and background of the study countries and the factors that influenced their approach to health services management.
The third part describes the study's methodology and the fourth part presents and discusses the key findings.
The report concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of the management situation for the countries and makes recommendations.”

To download the publication:
http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/hrh_observer_issue1.pdf

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