Towards a regional strategy for resolving the human resources for health challenges in Africa

[...]before we bring out the drums and dancers, let us deliberate over the sustainability of the gains, scale-up and expansion to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for implementing the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda or for meeting the Sustainable Development Goal number three (SDG3). [...]SSA countries crack the nut that keeps the region behind others in the prevention and containment of the issues which pose a major threat to UHC attainment in the region, all other ancillary efforts will continue to function at suboptimum level. The World Health Report of 2006 motivated the development of a Regional Roadmap for scaling up health workforce interventions in SSA, despite which very little progress has been recorded towards meeting the region’s HRH needs.5 For example, using the minimum threshold of 2.3 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1000 population,2 3 Thirty-one SSA countries were projected to require an additional 800 000 health professionals at a cost of US$2.6 billion to meet that minimum threshold in 2015.6 The region has only filled 14.5% of its requirement for physicians and 36.7% for nurses and midwives.7 80% of SSA population are without a physician and 60% without a nurse or midwife. Estimated demand for all cadres of health workers is escalated by 71% when one includes allied health professionals such as radiographers, laboratory technicians, psychologists and social workers, among others.8 The primary employers of health professionals in SSA countries are the governments which also largely bear responsibility for HWF production. The strategy would build on the Africa Regional Road Map that provided policy options for countries to follow.2 We advocate a mechanism that will address the composite level of production (viz-a-viz needs), provide a standardised training curriculum, accreditation and licensing, as well as regulate the conditions of work across countries within the region.