Heroic MeasuresÂ
Our colleagues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remove roadblocks for making decisions to support health workers.
They’re on their way to collect information on the health workers deployed in a remote health zone in Maniema Province.
Decades of conflict and instability have left a severe health workforce shortage in the country and more than 67 million people with limited access to basic health services. Health leaders have lacked a clear picture of how many health workers are available, where they’re located, what their skills are—and other vital information to solve health workforce issues, like retention.
For example, only about a third of public sector health workers in the DRC have been drawing a salary. The Ministry of Public Health is addressing this and more by implementing iHRIS—open source software for tracking and managing health workers—in two of the largest provinces.Â
After entering over 11,500 health worker records into iHRIS, the ministry analyzed a variety of health workforce topics, including compensation. It found that over one-fourth (27%) of the health workers listed as salary recipients in the payroll system were actually ghost workers (or people being paid but no longer working). The ministry reallocated funds from those ghost workers to cover 781 salaries for real health workers who previously hadn’t received any civil service compensation.
Thanks to our team members and the ministry for not giving up, despite many fallen trees in the road. Wonder what they found out in Maniema that will help support health workers to better serve people in need? Photos courtesy Dr Likofata Jean Robert
