LOCAL RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

161 problems? So sometimes, it's sometimes better when you are not within the system and then you make noise. (Im3:35-38)

As for the field of HRH, however, the SWAp - or the respective technical working group - are suggested as the appropriate place to openly discuss policy suggestions. This may involve donors and recipients, governmental and non-governmental actors, even if they do not financially contribute to the SWAp. It is seen as an opportunity to arrive at unified approaches of all relevant players and at country-wide policies (Im7:161-163).

The ZHSO as a part of the SWAp implementation system may offer respective platforms for exchange and critical discussion at the zonal level.

162 MB: And who recruits the HSAs? // The MoH recruits them. The idea is to have one HSA per 1000 people // MB: So somebody comes from the national level, or they operate through the districts? // The advert comes from the Ministry, and then people apply and are recruited. Somebody from the MoH comes when they are conducting the interviews, and you also have local people from here, and independent people within the district, so that it's transparent. // MB: And also you as DHO have been sitting on that board? // Not necessarily, people have been delegated to do that. // MB: How have you been involved in their training as a DHO? // We only provide the trainers, they are already there. They have been trained by the MoH, they are local trainers. (Im8:86-95)

Given the involvement of so many different players, the principles of transparency, independence and local linkage are highlighted as particularly relevant. However, no consequences are derived regarding staff motivation and quality assurance, which might be handled differently in this cadre of health workers.

Reducing costs on behalf of the workers

Working close to home, and the possibility to engage for one’s own community can be seen as critical factors in retention. Emigration, death, and premature retirement have been mentioned as major causes of attrition. The latter phenomenon is described in the following statement:

Im3: […] because of these others we are losing off the system, because nobody seem to be keeping track of that people whatsoever. Yeah? I don't know whether they cannot get them, because of course you get the numbers of people who just - nursing particularly - who are just quitting their job because it costs so much to come to work that the salary is not enough. You know? You spend all that money only on transportation, so what's the point, you know, you have very open hours to start with, and then at the end of the day you spend three quarters of your salary on transportation, you know? So what is in it for me? So that say ah, stop working. So there's quite a good number of those, yeah (Im3:

48)

The underlying assumption is that there might be a pool of qualified health workers that could be tapped through more localised approaches to recruitment. Of course, highly qualified health workers are not likely to live in the most underserved areas. Yet community-based health care provision may offer some chances, as this interview statement shows:

163 Currently we want Ministry to gives us home based care nurses. I know it's not in their establishment, but as a district we feel that if we can have that, it will help us, and through collaboration with COM, because I think they run those colleges in certain towns, they have their own home based care nurses, and the programme is running so well. So we're proposing to the Ministry to say can we take those nurses on our payroll? But we have to keep it solely for home based care component. So they have given us a go ahead that we have that establishment. So our role in HR is just to coordinate. (If11:91)

This example shows that local initiatives for HRH - and alliances of several actors in particular – can be successful. Some sensitivities about the deployment of this new cadre is surfacing in this account. On the other hand, the integration into the MoH establishment assures connectivity with other parts of the health system as well as the longer-term covering of the cadre.

Fostering autonomy

Additional advantages of locally recruited staff and especially of volunteers are often seen in better means of community mobilisation. This is of particular relevance when donor-supported projects are phasing out, as can be seen in this interviewee’s account:

We should find alternatives, the community should find alternatives on how they can get these things on their own, without dependence. […] What happens is that most of our strategies for sustainability, they are meant to convince our donors, so that they can see what we are doing is going to produce results, like we can leave behind and then people can continue. But most of them are academic. (Im5:67)

Sustainability here is described as being in conflict with immediate visibility. This is concerning the visibility of project inputs to the community at the early stages of the project, and the visibility of project outputs to the donors at the end of the project. He admits that the problem already lies in the project proposal: The sustainability strategy has a pacifying and legitimizing function for the donor and is thus essential for the approval.

Development committees at the district level are meant to provide such links with the community. Since in 2009 they were still populated by employees of the district administration rather than by elected representatives, these links are reportedly weak:

164 And within that district assembly we are supposed to have working committees, one on health and environment, one on agriculture, one on other things. So within this health and environment, we are supposed to have councillors, to look at all issues coming from health sector. //M: so they are like the chairmen of this working group then.// Yeah, they are supposed to be chairmen, without them this committee doesn't work. But the mandate of the zone, later on, is to orient these people on how best they can either support the plan and budget in the health sector, and also that there is indeed issues coming from the community.

But from there, we are also supposed to support the decentralised structures through the area development committee, village development committee and village health committees, in coming up with the plans. And these are supposed to be tapped through these structures, where now the District Health Office can tap the initiatives from the people. But that thing is still like a dream, because the structures are weak. (Im16:37-39)

As an important step in that direction, he suggest to have a more intense and participatory planning exercise every three years instead of the current annual planning procedures (Im16:46). Expertise from the health sector with participatory planning is thus supposed to be fed back into the larger political structures.

Meanwhile, the development committees can also be seen as a chance for the District Health Office to become part of coordinated action in the district (Im12:46-48).

Although Malawian leaders often call for a stronger donor engagement in varying sub-sectors of the health sector and appreciate concrete assistance, many of them are also sensitive about the issue of donor dependence. The idea that users should pay a flat rate or user fees to generate an income within the health sector therefore appears to be rather popular among the interviewees (Im8:79). At the same time they are aware that accessibility of community health services is better if there are no fees (If21:99).

The uncomfortable feeling of being at the mercy of donors partly outweighs the awareness of poverty and constriction of autochthonous resources:

[…] we always say that your expenditures should be within your income. […] if we have to think within our income, I think we can focus. But because we always think there will be somebody who’ll come to rescue us, so we tend to take opportunities. We think somebody will come and give us some money, we'd say it's not enough, so we keep on dialoguing. Lots of time to try and mobilise resources. But if we were to spend within the income that we have, I think we can do it. (If4: 86)

165 For this interviewee, the performance of health services is thus not a matter of the overall resource levels, but a matter of focusing and maintaining a long-term perspective.

Of course, the major donor investments in the infrastructure and staffing levels of training institutions are also at risk of being discontinued. Even during the field research period, there have been signs of default regarding the financial flows that were agreed to flow into the CHAM colleges (Im2: 112). As for the issue of workforce development, it also appears necessary to foster the commitment of highly qualified staff to engage in training. Simply offering scholarships for Bachelor degrees in nursing education is doomed to failure, if the working and living conditions in rural nursing colleges are not accepted by the graduates (If22: 25). The following interview sequence highlights this potential:

[…] the maternal issues, I think there we're still having problems. Hm, that would mean in terms of human resource, in terms of how we manage our cases, in terms of our logistics. On HR, I'll say maybe there aren't enough nurse-midwives, but they conduct save deliveries in health centres. And also in terms of other specialties - for [name of her city], we don't even have one obstetrician that is trained that belongs to government. […] I think also in [name of two other cities], most of them are visiting, they come here, they go, they come, they go. And in my own understanding, the way I feel, it's us guys that do really understand our health system, and it's also us that have to make a difference. Because if we can improve on our human resources, I think things would be better. Yeah, that's my suggestion. (If11:103)

It also shows that technical expertise as it can be gained through specialist engagement (e.g. in the form of technical assistance) is not sufficient to ensure the

‘reproductive functions’ of the national HRH system.