Task Sharing for Cesarean Sections

Human resource shortages in health services are widely acknowledged as a challenge to health service delivery in low income countries. A more rational distribution of tasks and responsibilities among available cadres of health workers, or task sharing, has been recognized as a promising strategy for improving access to health services within health systems. Task sharing strategies have achieved variable success due to varying local health contexts and different social, political, and cultural systems. The goal of the TRAction task sharing research is to develop implementation guidance based on case studies of task sharing efforts in four countries with different approaches to task sharing for Caesarean sections. TRAction will use this implementation guidance to engage stakeholders in a community of practice to improve the use of the research and where appropriate promote the development of policies for task sharing of Caesarean sections. TRAction is currently supporting research related to disrespect and abuse in Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, and Zambia.

 

A brief of TRAction's task sharing work can be found here.

 

The four study teams--Chainama College of Health Sciences (Zambia), Community Health Promotion Kenya (CHPK), the University of Malawi College of Medicine (CoM), and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS)--collaborate with the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA) and Columbia University's Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) program to develop guidance notes for countries seeking to initiate or improve task-sharing programs. Each year ECSA organizes multiple conferences and meetings which will provide fora for disseminating at the Best Practices Forum and the Directors Joint Consultative Committee, which bring together researchers, heads of health training institutions, and senior officials from the Ministries of Health in East, Central, and Southern African countries. The task sharing guidance notes will be included in the discussion of best practices and key policy issues, from which a set of topics will emerge which will be presented to the Ministers of Health at their annual meeting. This process provides a unique opportunity to discuss the evidence at the highest levels and facilitate its translation into action.