Reducing Mortality through Increased Numbers of Available, Skilled and Motivated Health Workers
GaneshAID supports health workers as an essential factor for the delivery of healthcare and immunization interventions. Health workforce represents the single largest cost element in providing health services in lower-middle-income countries, but many of the poorest countries have been unable to meet the pressing health needs of their populations.
Millions of people die prematurely, or suffer from illness or disability unnecessarily, because the appropriate Human Resources for Health (HRH) to provide care are not available to them. The health workforce situation is complex and requires a long-term commitment from multiple stakeholders. For many years, GaneshAID’s experts have been committed to reinforcing the availability of competent health workers in the right place and at the right time. At an early stage, GaneshAID has been providing competence-based training to health staff to positively impact on the performance of health systems and services. Therefore, GaneshAID has progressively extended its commitment to tackling health service barriers, addressing issues related to insufficient health training and education, inappropriate manpower governance and management, as well as the scarcity of HRH financing.
Our Vision: Reinforcing the Enablers of Health Workforce Performance
Our vision is to promote and reinforce the enablers of health workforce performance and efficient strategies to improve equitable health and immunization outcomes in lower-middle-income countries.
Our Approach
Our approach is grounded on multifaceted interventions that include Strategic Planning, Workforce Management and Development, and Monitoring and Evaluation. New holistic approaches are used depending on the countries’ situation and contexts, but commonly reinforce favorable factors for health workforce performance.
Our Tools for Health Workers Performance
We use different tools as follows to build the capacity of the health workforce:
- HRH assessment tools
- Training Needs Assessment tools
- Learner-centered and competency-based trainings (in-person courses)
- Simulation games
- Microlearning capsules
- m-learning courses
- Virtual Knowledge library
- Social Media Learning
- Networking and community of practices
- Performance coaching model
- Digitalized Performance appraisal
- Automatically generated improvement plans
- e-dashboard for improvements monitoring
- My today-task with prioritization
- e-Job aids
- Digital Marketing of health and immunization services
Innovation for Health Workforce Readiness, Education and Learning to Cope With COVID-19 Pandemic
GaneshAID develops innovative solutions to build health workforce readiness, education and learning to manage the pandemic, maintain health services and prepare for a COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment.
Disruption of immunization services, even for short periods of time, will result in more unimmunized people and increase the likelihood of developing vaccine-preventable, epidemic-prone diseases such as measles. These outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases can lead to increased morbidity and mortality primarily among young children and other vulnerable groups and represent an even greater burden on health systems already under severe strain in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is therefore essential that vaccinators maintain immunization activities while limiting the transmission of COVID-19. Given the difficulty of groupings for face-to-face training, an innovative m-learning and social media learning solution would allow vaccinators and their supervisors to acquire the knowledge to:
- Ensure safe immunization activities by protecting themselves and minimizing the risk of transmission of the virus during immunization visits.
- Communicating key messages to communities about immunization as a priority health service during COVID-19, the risks of Vaccine Related Poliovirus and the benefits of vaccination.
- Use immunization visits as opportunities to spread messages to encourage behaviours to reduce the risk of COVID-19 virus transmission.
- Identify the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 disease.
- Provide advice on what to do if symptoms are identified.
During the pandemic, the vaccinators’ training in real time is crucial for them to maintain immunization activities and communicate on the protective measures to put in place. This is the reason why GaneshAID, in close collaboration with ANSSP Benin, Gavi and partners, have developed a mobile learning application inspired by social networking and microlearning, and targeted to vaccinators. Educational content and information focus on protecting vaccinators and implementing their mission of continuing vaccination activities and encouraging community demand. As the pandemic progresses, new resources can be added immediately and the set of microlearning capsules are updated to best reflect changing contexts. This will be possible each time the application of VACCIFORM is applied for the training and ongoing information of vaccinators facing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our Key Interventions
- Human Resource for Supply Chain Management Theory of Change and Training Needs Analysis in Thailand and Vietnam – UNICEF-People that Deliver (2020).
- Advocacy for Available and skilled Manpower in Africa – ADAMA – Save the Children (2013).
- Training package development for Hepatitis Birth Dose Introduction in Senegal – WHO HQ (2015).
- Business Feasibility Study to establish a Regional Asia-Pacific Center of Excellence (RACE) for Health and Immunization Supply Chain – Gavi Secretariat (2017).
- Tabletop game simulation exercise to test WHO and country level preparedness when it comes to deployment of influenza vaccine – the PIPDeploy game – WHO HQ (2018).
- Formative, summative, and normative evaluation of Strategic Training Executive Programme (STEP) – Gavi Secretariat (2019).
- Training packages for Managers, Supervisors and Senior technical staff of Expanded Programmes on Immunization – WHO EMRO (2019)
- Improving the Quality of African EPI Managers Meetings – WHO AFRO (2021).
- EPI Performance coaching for enhanced supportive supervision COACH2PEV Sénégal – Gavi Secretariat (2018-2022).
- Blended training combining short in-person course and e-learning on Dengue Fever Prevention and Control in Vietnam– World Bank (2012-2014).
- Blended training combining short in person course and serious game on Cholera prevention and control – World Bank (2012-2014).
- Microlearning and competency-based learning pathways for mOPV2 vaccine management and cold chain logistics – UNICEF (2020-2021).
- Building skilled workforce though Social media learning to maintain immunization activities during the Covid-19 pandemic VACCIFORM Bénin – Gavi Secretariat (2020-2021).
- Social media learning, competency-based learning pathways to build human resources for immunization supply chain AFRiSC in Africa – WHO AFRO and HQ (2020-2021).
