Where We Work / Eritrea

To help countries better understand workforce issues and formulate optimal human resources for health (HRH) plans, Capacity Project staff used workforce-planning spreadsheet models to produce ten-year projections for five sets of health professionals in Eritrea:

1. Doctors and specialists
2. Associate nurses
3. Nurses, midwives and nurses with additional training
4. Pharmacy technicians
5. Laboratory technicians.

The spreadsheet tool provides an overview of the current workforce situation as well as immediate projections of expected outcomes in response to a range of user-stipulated conditions or changes. The tool works by organizing basic data on the size and distribution of health workers and on national health priorities. The user can introduce various changes, such as increased graduation rates of certain types of workers or increased retirement ages; the tool then provides the user with the predicted impact these changes would have on the workforce. This is useful for advocacy, planning and decision making.

In Eritrea, the forecasted impact of various strategies to maintain or increase service delivery was evaluated and shared at a workshop for stakeholders, who examined various workforce interventions and the time predicted for the country to achieve its desired national staffing levels alongside the necessary investments in training. The information generated by using the Project’s tool influenced and strengthened the final version of Eritrea's national HRH strategy.