van Ryneveld, ManyaSchneider, HelenLehmann, Uta2021-01-042021-01-042020van Ryneveld, M. et a. (2020). Looking back to look forward: a review of human resources for health governance in South Africa from 1994 to 2018. Human Resources for Health ,18(1),921478-4491https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00536-1http://hdl.handle.net/10566/5530While South Africa has had a fairly consistent record of producing national-level strategic plans for human resources for health in the past 25 years, the country continues to face major problems of affordability, availability, distribution and management of its health workforce. There are several factors contributing to the state of health human resources in the country, but problems with governance stand out as one area requiring further research, analysis and critique. This paper presents a retrospective analysis of the historical patterns in national health human resources governance in South Africa, based on a desktop policy review spanning 25 years after democracy. The authors took a multi-pronged, iterative approach, reviewing policy documents alongside grey and published literature. This led to a timeline showing key legislation, relevant health system and human resource policies, interventions, reviews and evaluations from 1994 to 2018. The review identified three distinct periods that help to characterise the terrain of human resources for health governance over the concerned 25 years. Firstly, a foundational period, in which much of the constitutional and legislative groundwork was laid. Secondly, the HIV epidemic period, which presented a major disruption to the development of system wide governance interventions and improvements.enHealth human resourcesGovernanceStewardshipSouth AfricaArticle