[Politics of human health resources: a proposal for their formation]

This article is an account of almost two years of experience in manpower policy. The authors worked together in the Central American area, one in an international cooperation agency and the other as a local official who also worked at the international level. The circumstances that have generated interest in work of this kind are examined, considerations are advanced on the framing of a definition of "policy" in relation to this particular problem, and a policy structure is proposed on the basis of elements grouped as homogeneously as possible. On the basis of the experience of three countries, the elements are determined that can be involved in the process of working out a manpower policy. A detailed description is then given of the model generated in the Community Health Training Program for Central America and Panama (PASCCAP) for the formulation and promulgation of a policy, and of the first results obtained in the Central American Area.