%0 Journal Article %T Rebuilding human resources for health: a case study from Liberia %A S Tornorlah Varpilah %A Meredith Safer %A Erica Frenkel %A Duza Baba %A Moses Massaquoi %A Genevieve Barrow %J Human Resources for Health %D 2011 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1478-4491-9-11 %X Based on results from a post-war rapid assessment of health workers, facilities and community access, MOHSW developed the Emergency Human Resources (HR) Plan for 2007-2011. MOHSW established a central HR Unit and county-level HR officers and prioritized nursing cadres in order to quickly increase workforce numbers, improve equitable distribution of workers and enhance performance. Strategies included increasing and standardizing salaries to attract workers and prevent outflow to the private sector; mobilizing donor funds to improve management capacity and fund incentive packages in order to retain staff in hard to reach areas; reopening training institutions and providing scholarships to increase the pool of available workers.MOHSW has increased the total number of clinical health workers from 1396 in 1998 to 4653 in 2010, 3394 of which are nurses and midwives. From 2006 to 2010, the number of nurses has more than doubled. Certified midwives and nurse aides also increased by 28% and 31% respectively. In 2010, the percentage of the clinical workforce made up by nurses and nurse aides increased to 73%. While the nursing cadre numbers are strong and demonstrate significant improvement since the creation of the Emergency HR Plan, equitable distribution, retention and performance management continue to be challenges.This paper illustrates the process, successes, ongoing challenges and current strategies Liberia has used to increase and improve HRH since 2006, particularly the nursing workforce. The methods used here and lessons learned might be applied in other similar settings.Following fourteen years of civil war (1989-2003), Liberia's healthcare system was devastated. Most health professionals had fled or died during the fighting. In 1988, prior to the war, there were 3526 persons employed in the public health sector. By 1998, this number had reduced to 1396, with only 89 physicians and 329 nurses [1]. This paper introduces the historical and political context that le %U http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/9/1/11