TCD’s Centre for Global Health Tackles Human Resources Crisis in Healthcare in Africa

Posted on: 12 December 2006

An innovative project aimed at addressing the human resources crisis in healthcare in Africa headed up by Trinity College’s Centre for Global Health, has received a grant of €2.3m from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Irish Aid fund.

The project is a partnership between TCD’s Centre for Global Health, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, Realizing Rights: Ethical Globalisation Initiative and the Regional Prevention of Maternal Mortality Network based in Ghana.

This multi-disciplinary and multi-phased project, with planned activity in ten African countries, aims to combine research, advocacy and policy to explore the role that new types of healthcare professionals can play in the delivery of emergency obstetric care.

Commenting on the potential impact of this €5.4 million project, the Director of the Centre for Global Health, Ms Eilish McAuliffe stated: “This project represents a new type of partnership that provides for rapid translation of research into policy and practice.  The involvement of Dr Mary Robinson’s organisation Realizing Rights: Ethical Globalisation Initiative and her commitment to addressing the human resources crisis in Africa is a critical component that complements our Centre’s expertise in Human Resources and the Mailman’s expertise in Emergency Obstetric Care.”

The  project will be led by the Director of TCD’s Centre for Global Health, Ms  McAuliffe and other TCD researchers who will work on the project are Professor Malcolm MacLachlan, School of Psychology and Centre for Global Health and Professor Charles Normand, School of Medicine and Centre for Global Health

In addition to the Irish Aid grant, the same TCD Centre for Global Health was also recently granted an additional €550,000 from the newly established Health Research Board/Irish Aid grants for a complementary research project on the motivation of health workers in Africa.  Professor Normand is leading the project which will also involve Ms McAuliffe, Professor MacLachlan, Dr Steve Thomas also of the School of Medicine as well as TCD’s academic partners in Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa.  The motivation and the retention of healthcare professionals in rural Africa will be the focus of the project. 

Both projects build on existing work in the Centre supported by a grant from the Advisory Board of Irish Aid to explore motivation amongst health workers in Malawi and Lesotho.

“In most African countries there is a rapid increase in the need for basic health care and a decline in the capacity to provide it.  At the centre of this crisis is a severe shortage of health workers, largely through migration to richer countries or moves to work in private practice in cities.  It is estimated that more than 4 million health workers are needed globally to meet basic health needs and over 1 million are needed in Africa alone. These projects focus on retaining skilled staff in key posts and motivating them to provide high quality services,” concluded Ms McAuliffe.