Proposal to identify and define competencies required to provide pharmaceutical services in the African Region

Project by the African Pharmaceutical Forum of the FIP in collaboration with World Health Organization, Nigeria

Background

The importance of health workforce provision is considered as one of the most pressing development issues worldwide. Shortage of human resources for health has gained more prominence with the advent of HIV/AIDS crisis which entails significant workforce requirements in the worst hit countries. This human resources for health crisis may deepen in the future due to demand for health care for ageing populations, epidemiological transition from the unfinished business of communicable disease containment to chronic diseases management, as well as recurring health crisis from natural disasters, epidemics and conflicts and other complex emergencies. The World Health Report (WHO, 2006) underlined the critical shortage of health workers globally with countries in sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected. Fifty-seven countries, 36 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, have a health workforce crisis. The human resources for health crisis is a threat to the delivery of health services and the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage as well as other national and international goals.

The inability of many countries to achieve the national and international targets for is suggested to be related to the shortage of skilled human resources for health. Shortage is generally linked to inappropriate and inadequate training, inadequate number and skills of health workers, uneven distribution of workers within the health system and between urban and rural settings, high attrition rate due to migration to greener pastures or death. Related to the political environment are poor working conditions, poor remuneration, lack of adequate planning and policies for the appropriate development and deployment of human resources to meet the needs of meeting the health care needs of the populace.

Factors affecting the pharmaceutical human resources development

The first important reason for the critical shortage of pharmaceutical workforce is the lack of planning at the national level. The global demand for pharmacy workforce is likely to increase in the future as the economic status of countries improve and consumers gain greater purchasing power.

This will result in higher levels of medicines consumption and increasing demand for more labour intensive pharmaceutical services to support rational use of medicines and adherence.

Secondly, countries do not determine competencies they require to adequately deliver health interventions. There is evidence that training in pharmacy schools in sub-Saharan African countries are not aligned to the needs of the health sector. Most schools are still training students in well-known hospital, retail and manufacturing areas without considering the other important roles that pharmacists are expected to play in the face of modern health care challenges.

There is a general perception that pharmaceutical workforce lack the capacity in issues such as supply chain management, medicine regulation, management of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, primary health care and other public health issues. The result is the need to constantly upgrade their skills, knowledge and competencies through expensive ad hoc training workshops. The training curriculum is not sensitive to the needs of the employment sector such that it is usually said that the pharmacist is over educated and underutilized pharmaceutical workforce.

This proposal will address the issue of aligning the needs of the countries in the African Region with the training of pharmacists.

Objectives:

To strengthen the capacity to produce competent pharmaceutical workforce adequately aligned to the needs of health systems in African Region. A model competency framework required for the African Region will be designed which will form the basis for the countries in Africa to adapt their own nationally agreed competency framework.

The specific objectives are:

1.  To widely consult with stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector to identify the key competencies required to deliver pharmaceutical services in the African Region
2.  To produce a model competency framework adaptable by countries
3.  To produce a roadmap to guide countries in implementation of the model framework

Expected outcomes:

At the end of the project, the following deliverables will be achieved:

1. Workshop proceedings
2. 1000 copies of Model Competency Framework for African Countries including a roadmap for implementation of the model framework

Methodology:

This document will be developed by a profession-wide consultative process involving the key stakeholders in the pharmacy professionals (hospital, industry, regulation, public health, administration, community etc.,) pharmacy educators, pharmacists’ councils, pharmaceutical associations). The key users of the services of pharmacists will be consulted to gather their expectations for competencies that are required to deliver services. African countries representing anglophone and francophone countries will be part of the consultation.

Activities:

Activities:

Activities:

Project implementation arrangements

This project will be implemented with the World Health Organisation in Nigeria. WHO will provide technical support and manage the project according to UN policies.