CapacityPlus

CapacityPlus imageIntraHealth International is leading a five-year, $300 million global USAID cooperative agreement to strengthen the health workforce needed to implement quality health programs in developing countries. Awarded in September 2009, CapacityPlus builds upon and expands the successful efforts of USAID’s Capacity Project, also led by IntraHealth. The Capacity Project worked in 47 countries to strengthen health systems and workforce planning, development and performance support.

CapacityPlus strengthens the hu­man resources for health (HRH) needed to help reach the Millennium Development Goals. Placing health workers at the center of every effort, the vision of CapacityPlus is to build powerful constituencies to shape the global HRH agenda while achieving demonstrable progress in the health workforce in a set of focus countries.

The objectives of CapacityPlus are in alignment with the Global Health Initiative’s integrated approach to public health and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. As President Obama said in announcing the Global Health Initiative, ". . . we will not be successful in our efforts to end deaths from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis unless we do more to improve health systems around the world . . . ."

CapacityPlus addresses both the number of health workers needed and the quality and performance of those workers. The project will build capacity in service delivery, thereby increasing access to high quality family planning/reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, and other services. Specific results areas include the following:

  • Fostering global leadership to address the human resources for health (HRH) crisis
  • Enhancing HRH policy and planning, including strengthening HR management and information systems
  • Improving HRH workforce development, including preservice, in-service, and continuing professional development systems
  • Strengthening HRH performance support systems to improve health worker retention and productivity
  • Generating and disseminating knowledge to promote use of evidence-based HRH approaches.

In addition to IntraHealth, CapacityPlus partners include Abt Associates, IMA World Health, Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health (LATH), and Training Resources Group, Inc. (TRG). Associate partners include African Population & Health Research Center (APHRC), Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH), West African Institute of Post-Graduate Management Studies (CESAG), and Partners in Population and Development (PPD).

More information is available on the CapacityPlus website and in the CapacityPlus overview brochure.

Contact: Maurice Middleberg, CapacityPlus Director
Mail: IntraHealth International, 1776 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006, United States