Brief Training Report
1. Introduction and Background
In Tanzania’s decentralized health system, human resources are central to planning, managing, and delivering health services at District level. However, in addition to staffing shortages, the health system at that level faces many human resource challenges including weaknesses in human resource planning, recruitment, deployment, training, performance, staff motivation, and staff development. The root causes of these issues can be traced to years of neglect, low salaries, poor workplace climate, and limited capacity to train and update staff skills. Some of these issues need to be addressed at the national level, (for example, compensation), but many can be addressed through better leadership and human resource management at the district and facility level.
An expanded HRM role, especially at the district level, is needed to transform the outdated view of human resources as mainly an administrative function to one where the human resources staff work closely with managers to support the health goals of the district and to assure that the right staff with the right skills are hired, deployed, motivated and retained to meet these goals.
Managing people is an important and challenging task for any manager. Employees are motivated by many factors that can be affected by leadership and management. In addition to effective supervision, health staff performs better if they perceive that they are being treated fairly, understand their job priorities, get feedback on their performance, feel that they are valued and appreciated, and have a career pathway and opportunities for professional development.
Developing and maintaining a fair, equitable, and effective HRM system can motivate staff and increase their level of job satisfaction and efficiency, which can result in improved service quality. An important part of a long-term strategy is creating an organizational and management structure for HRM that is implemented by managers and staff at all levels. In other words, a human resource partnership between senior district managers, supervisors, human resource professionals, and individual staff members is what makes an HRM system work.
However, most of the districts in Tanzania lack HR qualified professionals with the necessary knowledge, skills and expertise to establish effective HRM systems. In fact, a four country study that was conducted by AMREF and MSH in 2009 to document the role and experience of health managers with HRM responsibilities revealed that 78% of respondents in such positions in Tanzania expressed the need for training and skills in the following six HRM areas: HR policy, performance management, managing staff training, HR data systems, HR strategy development and general leadership and management.
Effective and sustainable responses to address these challenges shall require a mix of knowledge, skills and leadership development and even confidence building interventions for both current and future HR staff, especially those working in the districts.
Long-term HRH sustainability requires several things, but one key action is the growth of a more ‘professional’ group of HRH people at the district level in general and within service delivery units in particular (both government and FBO) who have a deeper level of HR knowledge. The overall purpose of such a district strengthening program is stated as follows:
- To develop and strengthen the HRM capacity (knowledge, skills and practices) of selected district teams so that they are able to not only build and advocate for appropriate HR strategies but also implement solutions to some of the HRM challenges that the districts face.
- To develop and support a critical mass of HRH champions and knowledge brokers with the right skills and “clout” to articulate the issues and build and advocate for appropriate strategies and HRM systems to tackle some of the pressing HRM challenges that their districts face.
2.Training of District Strengthening Consultants
Margaret Morehouse (Training Resources Group) and William Kiarie (Management Sciences for Health) conducted a two weeks training of trainers program designed to:
- Equip local experts and local government representatives with a common body of knowledge regarding the human resource management system and its components (week 1)
- Develop their skills as trainers of adult learners (week 2).
Objectives of the training are found in Annex 1.
Participants varied in terms of their prior knowledge of HRM and their skill and experience as trainers. Below are the four groups of participants that went through the TOT program:
- Tutors form Zonal Health Resource Centers
- District and Regional health managers
- Private consultants
- BMAF/THRP staff
3. Next Steps and Way Forward
Newly trained experts will carry out the first district strengthening trainings the weeks of 22 November and 6 December in Iringa, Mtwara and Lindi regions. Upon completion of these trainings, 8 district representatives from each of 21 districts will have been trained.
Follow up coaching for trained districts will be carried out in January 2011 for purpose of assisting trainees as they apply their new knowledge to strengthening HRM in their districts.
Benjamin Mkapa HIV/AIDS Foundation (BMAF) has agreed with MSH and TRG the kinds of follow on support that each organisation will provide to the training and follow on phases.
A second coaching session will take place in March or April, 2011 which is month 6 or 7 post training.
Benjamin Mkapa HIV/AIDS Foundation (BMAF) will:
- Finalize the training materials including the Facilitator Guide, Participant manual and PowerPoint presentations.
- Facilitate obtaining of HRH local reference documents for facilitators and districts participants reference during the training
- Prepare Terms of Reference for the local consultants and Memoranda of Understanding for participating institutions
- Manage the logistics for the training and follow-up.
- Develop M&E framework and tools for the training and follow ups
4. Annexes
Annex 1: Course Objectives
Week 1
By the end of this week, participants will be able to:
- Describe the components of HRM system, their functions, and their interrelated nature
- Identify systems necessary to support good HRM practices
- Explain the Importance of using data for decision making
- Identify priority areas for improvement in HR management at district level
- Initiate plans for improvement of priority areas
Week 2
By the end of this week, participants will be able to:
- Present key HRM concepts from the THRP District Strengthening training materials
- Describe the elements and value of the Experiential Learning Cycle and how it is employed in the training modules
- Use facilitation skills to:
- Encourage participation when delivering interactive presentations/lecturettes
- Generate interaction among participants
- Guide learners through an experiential module.
- Practice the training techniques in the THRP District Strengthening Training Facilitator’s Guide
- Identify their strengths and areas for potential improvement in your training delivery skills.
- Clarify roles and responsibilities in the delivery of the THRP District- level training
- Develop a specific plan for delivering the course and for conducting the first round of follow
August 2010
