Developing the HRH Policy and Plan in Mali

Context: Deficient HRH management – especially insufficient training and motivation, and adverse distribution of qualified staff countrywide, at the expense of poor and remote areas – has been identified for over a decade as one major constraint for the implementation of Mali's national health policy.
Main objective: The HRH policy aims to define a coherent framework for the ministry of health (MoH) and its partners in order to ensure the harmonious development, distribution, management and motivation of health staff so as to ultimately improve health results. The policy is translated into an operational plan dealing specifically with training, recruitment, motivation, and career management.
Methodology: The HRH policy and plan were developed by a core team under the leadership of the Planning Department of the MoH, with the involvement from other departments of the MoH, the ministries in charge of finance (MoF) and civil service (MoCS), and donors. After analyzing existing studies and data, the diagnosis over the major problems to be tackled was done. This allowed identifying the main orientations of the policy, which were then translated into strategies and interventions, and then costed. Once the policy and plan have been drafted by the core team, they have been circulated to all departments and partners and discussed in several meetings with different stakeholders at central level. After integrating comments from these meetings, the MoH organized a validation workshop with very broad participation (including the operational level, private sector, and civil society) so as to ensure ownership. Final amendments were negotiated with the MoF and MoCS in order to be adopted as a national policy by the Counsel of Ministers by the end of 2009.
Results: The HRH policy and plan now benefit from wide political support by major stakeholders. Yet, implementation still has been delayed because of the management modalities at operational level still need to be definitively agreed upon.
Conclusion: The inclusive development process has been necessary to move on with the complex and highly sensitive issue of HRH management, and to get the support from MoF, MoSC and donors who are supposed to contribute to its financing.