Some abstracts presented include; funding for HRH, providing training for frontline healthcare workers, sustainability in HRH, evidence-based strategic planning for PHC development, implication of the National Health Act, challenges associated with health workforce production, equitable distribution and utilization of healthcare workers and effective performance management for PHC workers.
At the conference, participants deliberated the causes of the challenges apparent in HRH, some of which include; low production of health workers, weak government standards, limited funding for HRH, high cost of health infrastructure including the cost of accreditation in Health Training Institutes and the absence of regulations to ensure equity in the distribution of health workers, especially in Northern Nigeria.
To address the challenges, participants recommended various solutions including; partnering with different organizations to deliver effective solutions, harmonizing policies across all states, promoting innovation in fundraising for health, reform in the funding for HRH, safeguarding health training institutes, especially those in volatile areas and creating a platform to collect and collate human resources data on a federal level.
Addressing the issue of task shifting and task sharing especially in relation to training for staff and a mechanism for supervision.
The government should create a reward system and take into consideration the gross disparities in the availability of healthcare workers, especially in Northern Nigeria.
Call for the re-assessment of the NHAct to align with current needs of health workers.
Rehabilitation of health training institutions to enhance the quality of healthcare workers.
As part of the body of evidence and documented learning shared at the conference, the Women for Health program have produced a three-part, micro-documentary, Seeds of Change , showcasing the key approaches and impacts of the program. Another documentary, living the dream becoming a midwife was also created to show the impact of the Women for Health (W4H) programme on the lives of young rural women in northern Nigeria. In addition to this, the program has produced two How to Guides; How to Guide 1 is on empowering young women from rural areas to become health workers and the How to guide 2 focuses on accrediting health training institutions. The Journey So Far and the W4H programme overview publications outline the progress of the programme to date.