CapacityPlus Presents Retention Tools at AAAH Conference Side Meeting

Last week, CapacityPlus cosponsored a preconference side meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank at the 6th Annual Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH) Conference in Cebu, Philippines. The side meeting, "Addressing recruitment and retention of health workers: Application of tools," provided participants with a detailed look at several new and upcoming tools focused on health worker retention, including:

presenters at AAAH side meeting

  • How to conduct a discrete choice experiment (DCE) for health workforce recruitment and retention in remote and rural areas: A user guide—a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the WHO, and CapacityPlus
  • Rapid DCE Tool—a step-by-step retention survey tool created by CapacityPlus
  • iHRIS Retain—a retention intervention costing tool jointly developed by CapacityPlus and the WHO
  • Retention Roadmap—comprehensive guidelines and tools for implementing rural retention strategies being developed by the WHO, CapacityPlus, and other partners.

Akiko Maeda of the World Bank, Carmen Dolea of the WHO, and Wanda Jaskiewicz of CapacityPlus presented an overview of recruitment and retention from their organizational perspectives and their respective tools. As chairperson, Asmus Hammerich of the WHO/Lao People’s Democratic Repulic (PDR) facilitated the side meeting. Country case examples of the use of DCE to address health worker retention in the Asia-Pacific region were shared by Krishna Rao (India), Nonglak Pagaiya (Thailand), and Chanthakhath Paphassarang (Lao PDR).
 
The active engagement of approximately 35 participants representing 11 countries resulted in rich discussion of the challenges, actions, and promising practices related to recruitment and retention of the health workforce in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Photo by Wanda Jaskiewicz.