The Emergency Hiring Project (EHP) is an innovative programme of the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare initiated in 2007 and ended in December 2010. Financially EHP was supported by the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) that aims to contribute to the national acceleration of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment through strengthening the Human Resources for Health (HRH).

Based on the Mkapa Fellows Programme experience, the Benjamin William Mkapa HIV/AIDS Foundation provided technical and management support to the Emergency Hiring Project of the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare.

Two programme approach applied by EHP included:

•  Fast tracking recruitment and retention of health workers on three years contract that are deployed to serve hard to reach districts in the country.
•  Strengthen the district operational environment as a retention strategy for new and existing health staff.

The rationale for EHP:

•  Even with the increased salary and budget for recruiting health staff allocated by the Government in Financial Year 2006/2007, remote/underserved districts are not able to attract and retain staff.
•  EHP is an innovation, testing the following:Putting health staff on 3 years contractual basis in remote areas
•  Having an attractive incentive package retains health staff in remote areas
•  Contractual staff can be absorbed in the routine Government system, at end of contract.

Recruited health worker attending Patients in one of EHP Districts

The project has recruited 176 health workers that have been placed in 19 hard to reach districts in August 2007. Selection of the types of cadres took into cognizant the district HRH needs. The Health workers signed a three years contract with the Ministry of Health and the Local Government Authorities. 

Health cadres recruited is as shown below:

To ensure ownership and clarity on roles and responsibilities, the EHP new hires jointly received one day orientation of the project and Government structures and systems functioning. This was undertaken in forum together with the Regional and District authorities. Subsequently the new hires were trained on HIV/AIDS clinical care and treatment at the National Zonal Training Centres by using the National curriculum.

Program Manager orienting New Hires about EHP

The project being comprehensive in nature is bringing in other partners:

• The Prime Ministers Office, Regional Administration and Local Government were the co-lead Ministry that links the EHP with the HRH planning, implementation and monitoring in the Local Government Authorities.
• The Capacity Project through support from the USAID took the lead role in supporting the second prong of the project which entails improving the operational environment of the EHP districts and support of the Monitoring and Evaluation of the project.
• National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR)  supported the operational research in HRH 

The remuneration package of the new hires include the following:

 For information about the achievements attained by the Emergency Hiring Project,click here