Communication as the key to guide workforce development in the health sector in public stakeholder partnerships: a case study in Liberia

Background: To improve the academic capacity of disciplines that contribute directly to the training of the health-care workforce in Liberia, the University of Liberia, in partnership with American counterparts at Indiana University and University of Massachusetts, launched the Center for Excellence in Health and Life Sciences, funded by USAID and Higher Education for Development. Methods: With a participatory approach, academics, government representatives, and community constituents developed a Certificate in Public Health (CPH). Targeting midlevel governmental health workers, the programme model combined traditional coursework with intensive community-based practice experiences, allowing students and faculty to move outside traditional academic and technical disciplinary boundaries. With a participatory approach to define measurable outcomes that were relevant to health-care planning for the country, the programme continually aligned its content with stakeholder expectations. Findings: The first cohort of ten students completed the core course curriculum plus 90 h of internship activity at five government facilities around Monrovia. Findings are the facilitating and challenging factors associated with the programme's development, implementation, and evaluation. Challenges include increased home-based delivery by semitrained traditional midwives and increase in malaria, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infection in children younger than 5 years. Interpretation: The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has already provided a framework to guide the rehabilitation of the health sector in a plan called Rebuilding Basic Health Services. To align public institution outcomes to workforce needs, communication, collaboration, and synergy between stakeholders is key. Tracking the improvement of data being reported and the health outcomes of communities served by the CPH graduates will be important. Further analysis needs to be done to ensure training fills health worker gaps. Funding: USAID