In some of the poorest countries of the world, the health system is in danger of collapse due to a lack of health staff to deliver services. Human resources are essential to planning, managing, and delivering life-saving health services; research has shown that more mothers and babies die when there is an acute shortage of health staff. Many of the causes of such shortages are chronic problems, familiar to health managers and providers everywhere: migration of health personnel, poor distribution of staff, and lack of resources to recruit, train, and support health workers. These problems are being intensified in many countries by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the workforce and the extra demands the disease and its treatment impose on already overburdened health systems. These changing demands require changes in thinking about how to help governments and organizations sustain an adequate supply of qualified, motivated health staff. This section of the ERC provides you with tools, guidelines and readings that will help you develop and manage human resources. Additional tools can be found in the ERC Toolkit.