Brazzaville, 29 August 2007 -- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has proposed that, for the next decade African countries “substantially invest in implementing sustained multiple actions to ensure that the required health workforce is in place and functional” in the Region.

The proposal is contained in document presented by Dr Sambo to the fifty-seventh session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa which began Monday in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

Specific actions proposed by Dr Sambo focus on six integrated strategic areas.

These are:

• implementing innovative ways of creating fiscal space for health workforce development (including spending at 15% of national budgets on the health sector;
• accelerating the formulation and implementation of comprehensive human resources for health policies and plan;
• producing more human resources for health;
• improving management systems (by giving priority to improving performance, working conditions and the capacity of workforce departments);
• generating evidence by strengthening the effective collection and management of human resources for health information with core data sets and indicators useful for policy, planning and implementation, and ;
• fostering partnerships to strengthen, sustain and formalize mechanisms for intersectoral partnerships including the private sectors, NGOs and the diaspora for health workforce development.

Dr Sambo also outlined some of the issues and challenges facing health workforce development in the Region.

These include low budgetary allocations to the social sector, including health; absence of or weak health workforce policies; insufficient and inconsistent production of health workers, as well as poor motivation of health workers leading to migration to countries which offer better remuneration and opportunities for advancement.

The Regional Director called on countries to make policy decisions for the recruiting and retaining more health workers a matter of urgency.

He concluded “The current employment and deployment policies and practices should be reviewed and new opportunities for recruitment should be considered. Strategies to improve the utilization, performance, working conditions and retention of health workers should be put in place. Also, strategies, including bilateral and multilateral agreements for managing migration should be developed and put in place.”

For more information contact:

Technical contact

Dr Bessaoud Khaled

Tel: + 47 241 39511

Email bessaoudk [at] afro.who.int

Media Contact

Samuel T. Ajibola

Tel: + 47 241 39378

Email: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int