Four Steps toward a Stronger African Health Workforce in 2030 and Beyond

By Onikepe Owolabi , Senior global technical director for family planning and maternal, newborn, and child health ; Esther Tumbare, Senior global technical director for HIV Nicodemas Ondies, medical lab officer at Tudor Subcounty Hospital in Mombasa County, Kenya takes samples from a client. Photo by Edwin Joe for IntraHealth International.December 20, 2022As 2022 ends, the world is reflecting on and trying to recover from the third year of an ongoing pandemic. The road to recovery is long and made even more difficult by the massive shortage of what drives health systems: the health worker.Last week, this shortage was on the agenda at a high-level summit with African heads of state, sponsored by the White House. While the US made clear it would work closely on this issue with African partners, it did not commit to working with Congress to secure anynew funding to alleviate the crisis. Nor did any African leaders come forward with specifics on their own investments.It’s time to go beyond rhetoric to real action.It’s time to go beyond rhetoric to real action. By 2030, the World Health Organization projects a global shortage of10 million health workers. This compromises efforts to achieve universal health coverage. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular suffers from the shortage—many countries have only35% of the required doctors, nurses, and midwives the World Health Organization recommends to meet the population’s needs.This shortage is, in part, fuel...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Health workforce development Leadership and Governance Policy & Advocacy Systems Health Workers Source Type: news