Article Text
Abstract
Examination of the composition of the health workforce in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) reveals deep-seated heterogeneity that manifests in multiple ways: varying levels of official legitimacy and informality of practice; wide gradation in type of employment and behaviour (public to private) and diverse, sometimes overlapping, systems of knowledge and variably specialised cadres of providers. Coordinating this mixed workforce necessitates an approach to governance that is responsive to the opportunities and challenges presented by this diversity. This article discusses some of these opportunities and challenges for LMICs in general, and illustrates them through three case studies from different Asian country settings.
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Footnotes
Handling editor Seye Abimbola.
Contributors KS conceptualised the paper, developed the framework presented in it and led the manuscript writing. LKJ wrote a case study and reworked successive drafts of the manuscript. XZ and MB wrote case studies, and SMA contributed to the literature review and discussion. All the authors critically revised the content of the paper, approved the final version and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Funding Wellcome Trust, Capacity Strengthening Strategic Award.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data are available.